


Skin & Bones

by dnawhite76, Prubbs



Series: Yellow [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Domestic Fluff, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Family, Kid Fic, M/M, POV Alternating, Romance, Sexual Content, Size Difference, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dnawhite76/pseuds/dnawhite76, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prubbs/pseuds/Prubbs
Summary: "It had been Bruce that brought it up. The kid thing. It had been so casual that at first Tim wasn’t even sure that he had heard it. Just a handful of words thrown into everyday morning conversation."From Perfect Match, to perfect family.Please take this offering of porn and fluff.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Bruce Wayne
Series: Yellow [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638334
Comments: 41
Kudos: 150





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is a sequal to [_You Know, You Know._](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22091464) Check it out before you spoil all the good stuff!♡

Tim looked up from the memo he was marking through with a red pen when Bruce put a hand on his knee to stop it from bouncing. He blinked at his hand, white gold ring and a small band of black diamonds above it pulling his attention from production costs and back up to his husband who was looking down at him with a raised eyebrow. He knew why Tim was so tense. He always knew. It was a special superpower that he’d had very early on in their relationship that most people were convinced came from the extremity of their match. But Tim knew that it was just Bruce. He saw people. All of them, not just the one that he was genetically designed for. 

He still had a hard time believing it sometimes. That this perfect and beautiful man was his husband and his literal perfect match. He would wake up in the morning and find him in the office going over his morning schedule and just watch him wondering if the last eight years could even be real. But it was impossible to think it wasn’t when they were here. 

“Maybe we should just fill two cups this time,” he muttered as he watched one of the nurses walk by the waiting area with a blood bag. His stomach turned and he looked back at his report. 

“Do you really think you have that in you?” Bruce teased. 

Tim closed his report and glared up at him. “Want to try me?” He dared him, tempted to see if they could make it out of the lobby with no one noticing. But of course as soon as he said it, Lex Luthor finally made it over to them. 

“If it isn’t my favorite couple,” he said obnoxiously, flashing the smile he usually saved for the press. Tim could feel Bruce tense against his side and slid his hand into the one that was still on his knee before they stood up to greet him. 

“Good to see you again Lex," Tim lied so that Bruce wouldn’t have to speak to him. Their last meeting about their companies' partnership had ended very poorly and he was the last person that Bruce wanted to see. But of course with a case as high profile as theirs, Lex wouldn’t let anyone else touch it. It was easier for Tim to fake it, and at least he and Lex had one thread that connected them. 

“How has Conner been?” he asked, almost passing for casual. 

When all of this had started, Tim had been convinced that he was in love with Conner Luthor. He used to have dreams about them being matched, or that they wouldn’t be and decide to run away together anyway. That was before Bruce. Before Tim knew what being in love really felt like. Back when he was in school and Conner was interning at Perfect Match to help his father with the family business. Before the fight. 

They hadn’t really ever been super close. They started seeing more of each other his sophmore year at GU when they took a lab together. Conner had never told Tim what the fight had been about, he had just shown up on their doorstep at some point during senior year and asked if he could stay while he got back on his feet. As far as Tim knew they hadn’t spoken since then, and he hadn’t even seen Lex at Conner’s wedding. 

“He’s fine,” Tim offered simply, not wanting to give too much of his friend’s life away. “Busy but happy.” 

Lex nodded, smile still in place but his eyes were tight. “So I hear.” He nodded and clapped his hands together. “Right, let’s get your blood work going and we can look at the group of new surrogates we have picked out for you.” 

Bruce squeezed his hand as they followed Lex down the hall to one of the VIP examination rooms. It had been startling the first time he had been in one. The lush couches and examination chairs such a stark contrast from the small clinical one he had done his first work up in. He was almost positive that Bruce had never even seen a normal examination room, but he hadn’t bothered to ask as his stomach twisted with nerves for the fourth time in the past year. 

It had been Bruce that brought it up. The kid thing. It had been so casual that at first Tim wasn’t even sure that he had heard it. Just a handful of words thrown into everyday morning conversation. Bruce had been talking about the meeting that he had coming up that morning and Tim was reading him the newest stock reports. And then Bruce threw in that he was thinking they should make an appointment at LexCorp to look as surrogates before turning the conversation back to the sports section where the Icebats were on another losing streak. It had surprised him. More than Tim felt he was allowed to be surprised. He had known that Bruce wanted kids before they got married, Tim wanted them too-- but he had thought that they might have a little more time. But Bruce had reminded him that eight years was more time than most people got to have, and Tim didn’t have a good argument. Because Tim _did_ want children. He wanted children with Bruce. And he felt the same disappointing sting that Bruce did everytime the insemination didn’t take. 

He gave his husband a grateful look when he took the seat first, still holding onto Tim’s hand as the nurse took a few vials of blood. She handed him a cup after he got wrapped up and tried to get him to go into the private attached room to collect his new semen sample, but he stood next to the chair as she took Tim’s blood letting him grip his hand and turn into his side so that he didn’t have to watch. He watched Bruce walk into the private room after that feeling annoyed that they couldn’t just go in together. It would be so much faster if they could just get each other off, but no one cared about efficiency when they were trying to be appropriate. But he just waited his turn, sending Bruce lewd messages until he came out with a little smirk on his face and Tim was ushered in. 

**TW:** This is stupid. 

**BW:** Just close your eyes and pretend we are at home. It’ll only take a minute. 

**TW:** What’s the point of these fancy rooms if you can’t tell the nurse to leave?

 **TW:** I could give them three vials if you were in here. 

**BW:** So we went from two to three? 

**TW:** I didn’t realise that you were in your new jeans until you got up. 

**TW:** Remind me to email Tiffany and thank her. 

**BW:** You’re stalling. 

Tim sighed and clicked the screen off looking at the collection of magazines that were in front of him. He didn’t bother trying to pick any of them up, he just undid his pants and sat in the chair that they had in front of a television mounted on the wall. There was a DVD menu open on the screen, already scrolled down to the porn selection at the bottom that Bruce must have picked out for him. He smirked and pressed play ready to roll his eyes, but he just smiled wider when the mammoth of a man opened the door to some twink who couldn’t be over five foot five. Bruce loved his height. He especially enjoyed it in bed. 

He only half watched the video while his mind drifted to the night before and Bruce slamming into him from behind as he muttered how delicate and perfect he was in his ear. He felt himself harden at that. He gripped himself as he remembered the sound of Bruce's hips smacking against his ass and the feel of his hands holding his arms down onto the bed. He bit his lip in frustration as he chased after that feeling but it was almost impossible for him to come now without something inside of him. 

He managed. But it was nowhere near enough to fill three vials and just barely two if he had pushed for it. He straightened himself up and tucked his shirt back in, buckling his belt before he made his way back into the exam room. He handed his vial over to the nurse who took them from the room with a soft smile that made him feel almost guilty for his bad mood. 

He was just tired. It was a high production month at WE and one of the other project supervisors had gone out on maternity leave. So Tim had gotten stuck with the mess she had left the project in. Everyone had been surprised, she always seemed so efficient and productive. But the paperwork had been such a mess that no one knew how to start production. He'd been working everyday all day for the past three weeks and his first day off they were spending in a fertility clinic. 

Bruce was waiting with Lex just outside the door. As soon as Tim joined them, Bruce took his hand and they made their way back toward the lobby and took the elevator up to Lex's office. Mercy already had everything set out for them. Packets set up for them in chairs and a slideshow on the television ready to take them through their options. It was nothing like the first time. The first time had been fun. They had been given a huge book of possible surrogates and he and Bruce went through them at home with a bottle of wine. But when that one didn't take they stepped it up a notch. They had hand selected women that they could use and it had been so few that they didn't need to go home they just chose while they were there. And then that didn't take. So the search became more specific and Lex was determined that he would figure out how to get his _star match_ a child. 

And now here they were. Round four and there were only two women to choose from. "We took your blood samples from the last time and cross referenced them with the surrogates we have in the system. These two were the best medical matches to your spliced DNA that we could find." He cleared his throat and clicked forward on the slideshow. They listened, hands held between them as they flipped through the packet of the women and the medical records and family background. Tim did his best to listen to what Lex was saying and make a selection based on all of the information but he got stuck on the photo of the smiling blond with bright green eyes. 

"Tim?" He blinked when he realized he'd been staring at his packet instead of listening. He looked at Lex who seemed annoyed and then his husband, the little crease in his brow making him want to go back and pretend to listen better. Bruce wanted this so bad. Tim could do this with him. He could try again. "I like the blond," he told him and Lex skipped back to her photo. "She has kind eyes." 

Bruce squeezed his hand and looked at the picture. "She does, doesn't she?" He smiled and kissed Tim's temple making him smile back despite himself. Lex went over a couple more things and they signed the consent forms before they were finally walking out of the building and back to their car. 

"I feel good about this one," Tim offered when he noticed the little crease in Bruce's forehead was still there. 

His frown lightened slightly and Bruce pulled him in closer, wrapping his arm over his shoulders. "Oh yeah?" 

"I mean I did give them three vials worth of premium cum-"

Bruce laughed and bumped him with his hip, pinching him as he walked to the driver's side of the car. And it didn't matter how tired Tim was or how frustrating the process had been. He would do anything to get that laugh. 

-

He woke up late on Saturday morning, the new black out curtains they had installed a few weeks before keeping him dead to the world. He groaned when he reached out and felt the empty space in the bed where Bruce should be. He pushed himself out of bed. In his haze of grumpiness he thought about skipping the shower but he felt sweaty and his hair was still sticking up from the night before and he just felt gross. He showered and let the warm water carry the grogginess away and sighed when he shut the water off almost wishing that he could melt away with it. 

He took his time getting dressed wearing one of his favorites of Bruce's shirts and the jeans he'd worn the day before and went to find him. They had thought about moving a few times getting a more manageable place or one that was a little closer to work. But every time it came down to actually signing the papers they never actually made it. This apartment had been their home for eight years. It was where they'd had all of their firsts and Tim was having a hard time letting it go. He knew that they would have to move eventually when they had kids and they actually needed rooms to put them in. But it was just so hard to let go. . 

Tim stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked down the hall, enjoying the feeling of the soft carpet under his toes as he wandered to the only other room in the open and clean apartment. It was a guest room at some point but seeing as they never used it, Tim had convinced Bruce to convert it to an office. There were two desks tucked inside at different corners. They used to face the wall but they kept getting distracted by turning to look at each other so they made little cubby spaces so they could look up from time to time. He leaned in the doorway watching Bruce for a moment, distracted by who could only be Selina on the phone if his face was anything to go by. He glanced over to Tim when he felt him staring and smirked when his eyes dropped down to his shirt. He hooked his finger at him and Tim grinned as he walked over, sliding easily into Bruce's lap. 

"I thought we already spoke with the Queens about the insulation," he said. So it wasn't Selina. Tim trailed a string of kisses up his neck and Bruce sighed, his fingers carding into his damp hair. "Tell Oliver I will call him personally on Monday. Is there anything else? Good." He hung up and leaned back into his chair, Tim chasing after him with a little nibble at his ear. "Good morning, Mr. Wayne," Bruce grumbled at him. 

"Good morning, Mr. Wayne," Tim repeated into his lips. "That didn't sound like a fun conversation."

He chuckled darkly. "Would you like _another_ project to oversee?" Tim pulled back far enough so Bruce could see him wrinkle his nose and he really laughed and pulled him in-

-

But not before they heard the front door open. Bruce frowned but it only took a second for a familiar whine to tell them everything they needed to know. " _Tiiiiiiiiiiiimbo!_ " 

He sighed and didn't bother climbing out of his husband's lap as his best friend opened the door. Steph hadn't changed at all. Well, she had changed a little. She had the same unruly blond curls, evil smile and fuck it attitude-- but now she was also married to their college friend Jason and expecting their first child. 

She hadn't taken well to pregnancy either. She was miserable and she wanted the entire world to know it. She looked just as miserable as always in a floral shirt that Selina insisted made her look beautiful and jeans that Tim knew had stopped fitting a month ago. He only had a moment to wonder how she had managed to keep them on when she frowned at them. "Do you mind?" She asked them. "Flaunting your beauty and happy lives in front of a pregnant cow is considered rude."

"So is walking into someone's apartment uninvited," Bruce deadpanned. "That key was for emergencies." 

"This _is_ an emergency," she told Bruce almost vehemently. 

"And that would be?"

"Jason is taking a work call and I'm not allowed to go back to work until I explode with this child. So all I can do is sit at home and starve to death because no one will feed me," she moaned looking like she might cry if either one of them pushed her. 

Tim looked back at Bruce who was frowning at him in disappointment. "You know I have to feed her."

He pursed his lips grumpily regretting their ruined moment but eventually said, "I know." 

Tim kissed him and climbed off of his lap, pulling Steph out of the room with him to sit her on the couch before she demanded a foot rub too.

Bruce went back to work after Tim walked out with Stephanie. His phone went off half an hour later. 

  
  


**JT:** Is my wife with you? 

  
  


Bruce got up and looked down the hall. Stephanie was complaining loudly at the TV while Tim cooked. 

**BW:** She is.

**JT:** Thanks.

**BW:** Gym? 

**JT:** Fifteen minutes? 

Bruce sent back a thumbs up and finished his email before heading up to get changed. When he got back down Tim was sitting next to Stephanie and they were debating some detail about the show they were watching. 

"I'm going to the gym," he told Tim. 

"Bye!" Stephanie ground out pointedly when Tim leaned back to smile up at him. Bruce kissed him, then just because he liked seeing Stephanie pissed, kissed her on the top of her head. She swat at him and said no men were allowed to touch her ever again while she pulled Tim closer. 

Jason was already sitting at one of the tables in the lobby when he got there. Things had been strained when they first met. Jason had been on Tim's list, and even if nothing would beat the 98% it had brought up a possessiveness that Bruce had never felt before. The fact that Stephanie was absolutely smitten by him and they weren't matches made him feel even more territorial. He didn't want to watch her get her heart broken. Then a little over a year after they started dating, she showed up at their apartment and shoved a match profile in Tim's face. 

"We're a match!" Bruce had watched Stephanie's face slide from joy to panic and back to joy. It turned out that Jason had lied on his profile and said that he preferred men. Bruce had found out a few years later that he had hated the entire system. He didn't believe that a DNA test could tell you who you should be with. His parents hadn't been a happy match. He remembered Jason's drunk confession that he only changed his setting because Stephanie had told him that she didn't want to believe in the system if her and Jason weren't a match, but she knew it worked because she saw how happy Tim was. She'd looked like she'd given up. A second after Tim had read the match report Stephanie had shakily showed them the ring on her finger. 

"Stephanie said you were at work," Bruce said as a greeting. Jason sighed. 

"I was, but I only went in to escape." Jason tugged at his hair. "I'm going to go white with all the stress. Are you sure you want to do this?" 

"A kid? Yeah." 

Jason looked at him for a moment then stepped up onto the treadmill. "How'd it go?" 

"Same as the last few," he answered and started running. He set it at a decent pace and Jason matched it. He guessed today wasn't a competition day. "Lex seemed irritated."

"When does he not?" 

Bruce scoffed. "Point. Tim's getting more stressed every time we have to go in." 

"He thinks it's his fault."

He stumbled in his shock as he turned to look at Jason. He corrected his footing and kept running, but he couldn't connect the dots. "How could it be his fault?" 

"He told Stephanie. She didn't say why, just that he actually looked like he believed it." 

They ran in silence as Bruce's mind tried to trace back to any point where Tim could possibly think that it was his fault that they hadn't managed any successful implantations yet. "Does he think _I_ blame him?" 

"I don't know." Jason looked somber and Bruce knew that he did. Tim had this irrational idea that he wasn't enough. Most of the time it wasn't actually a problem, but when things were rough it came out, dug its claws into Tim's psyche and wouldn't let go. It was a monster Bruce had fought off many times. He wished that he could banish it for good, but he didn't think it was possible. 

Jason slowed after the third mile and Bruce followed suit. After the fifth they slowed to a walk and Jason looked a little less stressed and Bruce had thought out a plan to drive back the monster. 

"I should come get Steph. She's not supposed to be driving," Jason said after they'd cooled down and downed a few water bottles. He grabbed his bag and followed Bruce down the street to his car. 

"What are you doing here?" Stephanie asked as soon as Jason walked in. "Betrayer!" she hissed at Bruce. 

"Honey, you're supposed to be resting. In bed," Jason said in a soft voice. Stephanie's eyes softened for a moment.

"Oh no you don't! That face is what got me into this," she said and gestured at her stomach. Tim laughed and asked Jason if he wanted to stay for dinner. Stephanie gave in eventually when Jason rubbed his thumb over the bottom of her foot while they watched TV. 

"Should I assume every time you go to the gym you're going to be with Jay?" Tim asked while they washed dishes. Bruce glanced over to where Stephanie was smiling at Jason, the first smile he'd seen from her in two months. 

"Probably until the baby is born."

"Well I'll gladly reap the benefits," Tim said and slid his hand around his bicep and tugged. Bruce smirked into the kiss. "We never did finish our conversation from earlier." 

Tim's eyes darkened and he turned back to the task at hand, scrubbing furiously at the pot. Bruce took it and dried it. They finished in record time and the foot massage had Stephanie a much more calm mess that went easily with the best husband ever. 

"She's wrong," Tim said as soon as the door shut. "Because that title belongs to you." 

Bruce crooked his finger and Tim crept forward, eyes darkening with each step until he was standing before him looking up, his lip caught between his teeth. He let out a growl and picked Tim up, tossing him over his shoulder. Tim shrieked and laughter bubbled out as he walked them up the stairs to their bedroom. Tim bounced when he dropped him on the bed. He tugged a sock off and Tim sat up on his elbows as he tugged off the other. Bruce rubbed his thumb over Tim's ankle. Tim's eyes fluttered shut for a moment before he was focused back on him. He crawled onto the bed and reached for the button of his pants. Tim watched him with a lazy grin. He thumbed open the button. His eyes went to Tim's and he grinned. He pulled Tim's pants down and sucked on the half hard erection through his underwear. Tim's hand went to his hair immediately, pulling enough to earn a hiss. He looked back up. Tim's fingers slid easily from his hair when Bruce sat back. He pulled his shirt off and Tim followed suit. He looked at the flush spreading across his chest and the faintest rim of blue around the black of his eyes. He drew his hands down Tim's legs, relishing in the whine that escaped Tim's lips. 

He flipped him. In one quick move, Tim was on his knees. Bruce pushed his shoulders down and slid his hand into the back of his underwear as he kissed up Tim's spine. "Stay still," he told him. Tim's shoulders relaxed under him and he let his chest fall heavily into the bed as Bruce lifted his hips and kicked his knees further apart. He turned Tim's head so he could kiss him and let his own erection rub against his ass. When Tim started pushing back, Bruce slid off the bed long enough to kick off his pants and boxers. Tim hadn't moved, but his mouth was slack against the pillow as he watched him. Bruce ran his hands up Tim's legs and under his underwear before he pulled them off too. 

Tim trembled as Bruce took a moment to just look at him. "I can't believe you're mine sometimes," he whispered. Tim whined. Bruce shushed him as he kissed him deeply. He spilled lube over his fingers before he could get distracted by Tim's mouth. The first went in easily. Bruce held Tim's hips in place and refused to let him move when he immediately added a second. When Tim begged for a third Bruce found himself having trouble holding back. He watched Tim clench around his fingers with every thrust of them, heard the gasps and moans and wanted to be in him. Tim seemed to be on the same page. It didn't take long after the third for Tim to cry out for another. He waited, listened to Tim's overwhelmed pleas until he could feel him relax enough. Tim hissed as the fourth slid in. 

"Please, please," Tim begged. His hips twitching as he tried to push back on his fingers. Bruce let go of his hip and leaned forward to catch his lips. Tim was in a lust driven haze as he kissed him back. He put a hand on his back and pulled his fingers out. Tim immediately sobbed out and begged for him to put them back in. He kissed his temple. 

"Patience," he murmured and pumped his dick with his slick covered hands before kicking Tim's legs out and sliding between them. Tim stopped breathing as he pressed in. Bruce whispered a reminder and got a few shaky gasps. He loved how even after years it felt like the first time all over again. Tim still climbed into his lap when he worked too long. Still snaked a hand into his boxers in the morning. He still sighed like the world was finally perfect when Bruce was pressed as deep as he could go. He kissed his neck and wrapped his arm around Tim's chest before sitting back. Tim gasped at the change in position before hooking an elbow around his neck. Bruce sucked on his neck and gripped his hips. He lifted Tim up a fraction and let gravity pull him back down. He looked down at Tim's thighs spread across his own and his cock bouncing as Bruce picked up the pace. Tim was so light, so small, pressed against his chest. He bit at his neck and Tim whined and wrapped his free hand around himself. He could feel him getting closer, squeezing around him as he moved. He bucked his hips up as he guided Tim down harder. 

"Fuck," Tim breathed. He kept that hard pace until Tim was clenching around him and coming. He let Tim fall forward back to the mattress. He gave him a moment to stop twitching before he slid out and back in. Tim pushed back against him and he picked up that same frantic pace until he was coming with a groan into Tim's shoulder. He collapsed half on top of Tim and got a whine about him being too heavy. He shifted over, but Tim didn't let his arm go, kept it draped over him as he turned to look at him. 

"You're really mine," Tim said, some of that awe still in his voice. Bruce leaned forward and kissed him. 

"Forever," he told him. "I love you." Tim smiled. Bruce didn't say it often and Tim didn't seem to mind. He smiled into the cup of coffee Bruce placed into his hands after a late night at the office, or squeezed Bruce's hand when it slid into his coat pocket when Tim forgot his gloves so they could hold hands as they walked to work and said 'I love you too.' But Bruce knew when Tim needed the reminder, the spoken words to soothe over the doubt. When Tim let out a breath and relaxed like it was a weight off his chest Bruce wondered how he hadn't seen how bad Tim had needed them, how deep the monster's claws had already sunk their way into him. 

\---

Bruce was still in bed when he woke up the next morning. He was awake and flipping through whatever new novel that Selina had forced him into for there so called, "book club." The club consisted of her and Bruce and their friend Ivy who worked in the biochemistry division of WE. She was a lead researcher with a very dry sense of humor that Tim could never quite figure out. But her wife Harley was in absolute love with Tim. And while they had only met a handful of times she had declared that she was going to be his favorite person. Stephanie could not stand her. Barbara was kind of in love with her. Bruce was uncomfortable with how touchy she was. But most of that usually fell on Tim while Bruce, Selina, and Ivy talked about the book that only Bruce ever read. Tim was pretty sure that the whole, "book club," title was just a ruse to feel like they were doing something productive in their free time instead of just drinking and complaining at each other. But it made Bruce happy, even if he always hated the book. 

"How is it?" He yawned and tucked against his side, wrapping his arm around his waist. 

Bruce glanced down at him and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Pretentious," he grumbled and turned the page. He frowned more deeply as he finished the sentence he was on. 

Tim grinned at him and pushed up, pulling the book out of his hand as he climbed into his lap. "You know you don't have to read these. No one else does."

"I joined a _book_ club to read books, Timothy," he told him in a hoity toity voice and pinched at his side making Tim smack at his hand. "Just because everyone else does something doesn't mean you should do them. Did your parents teach you nothing?"

"Nope. They spent my childhood passing me off to nannies they couldn't afford while they drained money and life out of everyone we know," he said and smiled sweetly. 

Bruce let out a hard chuckle that sounded like he wanted to pull it back in. He pulled Tim into his chest instead and ran his hand over the small of his back. "That's dark."

Tim sighed. "And true." He pushed up so he could look at him and smirked in tired contentment. "You hungry?" He pulled on Bruce's hand as he got out of bed. 

Tim didn't know when it had started, but slowly he had been more forthcoming when it came to talking about his parents. He had offered an olive branch to them after he and Bruce got engaged, inviting his mother to important things for the wedding, but she had never showed. Tim had done most of the planning with Bruce and Martha. They hadn't even shown up to the wedding. About a year after, his father called him to tell him that his mother was very sick but she didn't want to see him. He had gone to the hospital, but she had sent him away and all they accepted from him and Bruce was help with the medical bills. She died not long after that and Tim stood next to his father at the funeral that was just a handful of lower tier socialites and family from Korea that Tim had never met. After that his father had started drinking more. It didn't take long for it to get bad enough that he did something just a little too stupid and ended up in prison. He had reached out about a year into his sentence. Left Tim a message. He was in rehab, going through his steps. He had apologized for everything he'd done and not done when Tim was a child. For not ever really being a father to him. He said that he was working on himself and when he got out he wanted to try and make up for the things he had done. But Tim had never called him back.

It wasn't exactly that he didn't want to, but he didn't know how to. As far as he was concerned Tim had never really had a father. He'd had a nanny. And all of the things that he hated most about himself were rooted in Jack Drake. If he could change and Tim could forgive him, what did that mean for everything else? He didn't like to think about it. But the closer they got to either having or not being able to have a child, the more Tim found himself thinking about him and the message that he couldn't bring himself to erase from his inbox.

He pulled on a pair of boxers and a black shirt before he tucked against the wall and watched Bruce pull on his lounge pants. He didn't bother with a shirt, stretching his arms over his head as his glasses slid down his nose again. It was still so difficult sometimes to believe that Bruce was actually his. The most perfect match ever made. It was like he had robbed a bank and everyone just smiled and waved him out the door. Bruce caught him watching and rolled his eyes before he grabbed his arm and pulled him down the stairs to the kitchen. 

Bruce made coffee while Tim went through the fridge asking about which things were appropriate to put in an omelet. Bruce just smiled as he argued ingredients with him, watching Tim over the top of his glasses as he added the smallest splash of milk into his cup. He handed Tim his mug with a smirk, nothing in it except pure caffeine. He'd stopped looking for the perfect way to dress his coffee in his senior year deciding that it was better not to let anything get in the way of the buzz. 

Tim made everything omelets while Bruce sat at the bar reading bits of the paper out loud. He switched over from the Gazette to the Daily Planet and glared at the front page. "What's Lois Lane saying this time?" Tim asked, taking a bite of his breakfast. 

"Nothing." Bruce sighed and dropped the paper onto the counter. But he knew that he was gearing up for more. He'd taken two more bites when Bruce finally said, "She's talking about the morality of match blend insemination. 

Tim raised his eyebrows and pushed at his eggs. "And I'm guessing the great Lois Lane is against the idea." Bruce didn't answer and Tim reached out to grab his hand. "You know that she isn't the final word in how to have children." 

"I know." Bruce sighed and looked up at him. He pushed up his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. "It's just… I feel like she's spying on us. Her articles just always hit a little too close to home for my comfort."

"She's not spying," Tim told him, leaning in to kiss away his worry. He couldn't blame Bruce for thinking she was. They'd had so many scandals break on them over the years that he couldn't count them. Sometimes Tim didn't even know about them until they were over-- but Bruce had shouldered every single one of them. "I heard from Con that her and Clark are trying for kids."

"Oh?" Bruce asked, taking a bite of his omlet like he wasn't interested. "How does Conner know?"

"Him and Clark are kind of friends?" Tim offered with a shrug. He sipped his coffee and looked up at Bruce who was staring at him with his brows drawn in. "This is why I didn't tell you. I knew you would get all weird."

"I'm not weird," Bruce complained quietly to his coffee. 

Tim grinned at him. "No, you're just coming up with conspiracy theories and how to counteract them while you _lie through your teeth_." He kissed him again and took his plate back around the counter. He rinsed it before he put it in the washer. "He was talking about putting on a game night with them and us… I told him that wasn't the best idea."

"What would ever make him think that was a good idea?" 

"He's been blinded by love." Tim shrugged with a little smile. "I think Cassie has been driving him crazy about her 'cycle' and he's dying to have the attention off of him for a little while."

"So he thought he'd start an all out war in Gotham?" Bruce snorted and let Tim take his plate away.

"Anything to get Cassie to stop bothering him about going to see his dad for a check up." Tim frowned thinking about all of the tests that they would be doing at Lexcorp at that very moment to see why exactly creating children between him and Bruce was so hard. But Bruce didn't let him dwell on it. 

"My mom asked if you would help my dad with the gate today," he offered, obviously changing the subject. 

Tim took the bait. "It's out again?"

Bruce laughed. "If you don't help him he'll be out there all day." He gave him a look that Tim was weak for and he had to admit he had been a very distracted son in law lately before they got dressed and headed out to the manor. He found Thomas as soon as they stepped foot through the side gate and went to go save him from the mechanical distress he had put himself in while Bruce went inside to check on his mother. 

Thomas was delighted to see him. He greeted Tim with a tight hug and almost immediately pulled him over to what he thought the problem was. Thomas wasn't what Tim would call mechanically minded. He was one of the smartest men that Tim had ever met, but he held so much information on everything else that this escaped him. It had taken him a long time to understand why Thomas tried to do any handy work around the house when he could afford to fix and replace everything he owned ten times over. It wasn't until Tim started giving him a hand that he realized that he was bored. It had kind of become a thing with the two of them. A way for Tim to bond with Thomas. Anytime they had a house problem, he would call Tim and they would spend a few hours trying to figure it out together. It never felt like work. 

They spent about an hour rewiring the gate until they were called in for lunch and they found Bruce and Martha having tea in the informal kitchen. Tim smiled at her when she made grabby hands for him and she showered his cheek with kisses before she got a good look at him. "You are a mess!" She exclaimed and pat the cheek she had just assaulted. "Thomas, Tim works hard enough as it is. Stop abusing him."

"It's not my fault Bruce is a hard ass." Thomas shrugged and she smacked him as Bruce grinned at his father. 

It was so easy to be with the Waynes. It had been hard for Tim at first trying to fit into this perfect family and not seem like the complete loser that he was. But once he stopped trying and figured out that this _was_ his family, it was simple. He gripped Bruce's hand under the table and hummed into the world's most perfect sandwich making everyone laugh and Martha demand to know what Bruce was feeding him. 

-

The week was hectic. And the week after that. And the one after that. The whole month was filled with Tim trying to make up for the incompetence of people outside their company trying to ruin his projects. He was working later and longer and barely had a full day off, but after six weeks of total hell, Tim signed off on the last of the shipments and sat back in his desk staring at the wall in almost ecstacy. That was it. They had finished. Two of the biggest projects he had ever directed were done and now all he had to do was type out his reports. 

He went to grab a cup of coffee, calls of congratulations and relief following him all the way to the breakroom. He poured his coffee and leaned against the counter waving at Alexis as she walked by taking a long drink from his cup. He was surprised when he put it back down to see Lucas smiling at him from the doorway. 

"Congratulations," he told him with a grin when Tim struggled to swallow such a big gulp. "Everyone is saying this is one of the smoothest projects they've ever worked on. A lot of people are talking about you right now." 

"I'm just glad it's over," Tim offered with an almost smile. He always hated celebrating whatever accomplishments he managed. "What are you doing down here?" 

Lucas was the president of Operations. He was a little older than Bruce and had taken over for his father after he retired a few years back. Tim had always liked Lucas. He never treated him like a kid or like a Wayne. Always judged him on his work and Tim made sure that his work was good. "I was actually hoping to run into you," he told him and shut the door to the breakroom. He sat at the table and pushed out the chair next to him. 

Tim took the seat with a frown. "Why would you want to talk to me?"

"I just had a conversation with Norman," he offered, watching Tim as he took another sip from his cup just to have something break eye contact for a moment. Norman was the VP of operations. He was mean, with a sharp eye for mistakes, and had been riding Tim's ass for the past four months. "And he just put in for his retirement."

"What?" Tim asked, surprised. 

Lucas smiled. "He wants to spend more time with his grandkids. But the interesting thing is that he put in a recommendation for his replacement." 

Tim hummed and added a sugar packet to his coffee just to do it. "Richards right? His last project was really-"

"He recommended you, Tim."

He blinked at Lucus, sugar wrapper falling into his mug. "But Norman hates me."

"He doesn't hate you." Lucas laughed. "In fact," he pulled out his phone and scrolled through something. "He thinks you are an, _exceptionally brilliant young mind and a fine asset to the company._ " He closed his phone and smiled at Tim's dumb founded expression. "You just finished a huge project," he said and stood up. "Take a break. Enjoy your weekend. And let's talk on Monday." Tim just nodded and stared after him, waiting until the door closed behind him before he grinned like an idiot into his coffee and choked on the wrapper when he accidentally drank it. 

-

"Emily, will you call Tim to my office please?" Bruce asked leaning forward enough to hold down the intercom button. 

"Yes, Mr Wayne," she replied. He could hear the amusement in her voice. He was grateful that she'd stayed with him. There had been a time a few years back when she'd first met her match that he was sure he would lose her. But her match had offered to be the one to move, and she'd stayed. She still teased Tim any time Thomas stopped by. She laughed when Bruce rushed out of his office fifteen minutes late to a meeting because his _lunch_ with Tim had run long. 

"He's on his way up."

"Thank you." He smiled to himself. Then after a moment he touched the intercom again. "You can take your lunch."

"Yes sir. Tell Tim congratulations for me."

He waited next to the door. Tim pushed in and stopped when he saw the empty desk.

"Mr. Wayne," Bruce said lowly. Tim jumped and as he turned his lips parted to suck in a quiet breath. He took a few confident steps. As soon as his hands wrapped around Tim's waist to lift him, he was pulling himself up into a searing kiss. Tim's legs wrapped around him. His hands slid down to his ass and Tim moaned. He stepped back and locked the door. He walked across the office holding Tim as he kissed and sucked on his neck. "An interesting contract crossed my desk." 

"Oh yeah?" Tim practically purred against his neck. 

"I called you to my office to discuss-" He groaned as Tim sucked on his earlobe. "-discuss the terms."

He laid Tim on the desk pushing at his jacket as he did. Tim looked around and grinned. "You cleared your desk this time." Bruce pulled off his tie and started on the buttons of his shirt. 

"Emily complained about the extra work last time." Tim looked up at him and with a mischievous grin knocked the pen holder off the desk. He stared at the pens spread out on the floor then back to Tim. He crooked his finger and Bruce moved forward. His hands skimmed over Tim's bare sides as he caught his lips. 

"What are the terms you wanted to d-discuss?" Tim asked. 

"I'd like to propose a weekend away. Perhaps at a cabin."

Tim groaned as Bruce pulled his pants off and ran his fingers up his thigh, teasing the sensitive skin. "I don't know if my boss will let me, sir." Tim's eyes sparkled. He caught his lips again and reached past him for the hand sanitizer bottle in his top drawer that held lube. Tim had been horrified while he watched Bruce standing over the kitchen sink as he filled it. He'd asked what if someone used it. Bruce had leveled him with a flat look and told him that _he_ planned on using it. Tim's distaste for the discreet bottle faded away the first time they used it during one of their lunches. 

"Your boss sounds like a hardass," he replied and slicked his fingers. He leaned back enough to watch his fingers disappear into the welcoming heat. 

"He does ride my ass _all the time,"_ Tim said with a stuttering laugh when Bruce crooked his fingers. Bruce laughed and caught Tim's lips as he worked his fingers and added a third. He kissed down Tim's jaw, watched the flush spreading across his skin. The way his jaw slacked as the pleasure overtook him. He pulled Tim down the desk, and held his hips up. Tim grabbed the edge of the desk in his surprise. Bruce lined himself up and slid in. Tim's eyes rolled back as his knuckles went almost white on the edge of the desk. He let out a sigh when Bruce stopped, barely halfway in. 

"You've been busy," he commented. "I've missed you." 

Tim looked up at him, eyes lost for a moment before they focused. He was pulled down into a desperate kiss. He pushed further in before pulling out. He kept up the shallow thrusts as he kissed Tim. "Harder," Tim breathed. Bruce bit at his lip as he pulled back to get a better hold on Tim's hips. 

"Yes Mr. Vice President," he said and pulled Tim against him as he thrust in. Tim's moans grew louder and with each thrust it drove him deeper until he was sliding all the way in easily and Tim's hands were both above his head holding on to the edge of the desk to keep himself in place. He leaned forward, Tim's body curling beneath him and caught his lips. "Congratulations, babe," he said and took Tim in hand. Tim shouted and came. That was all Bruce needed and he followed after him. 

"Were you serious about the cabin?" Tim asked. 

Bruce nodded as he tucked himself back into his pants. He looked at Tim, still spread out so lovely across his desk. He trailed his hand over his thigh and between his legs. Tim's breath caught. "We could leave right now. Your project is finished. I already pushed back my meeting with Queen."

"We have dinner with Dick and Babs tomorrow," Tim said as Bruce's fingers traced over his hips and up his chest. 

"We'll reschedule," he replied and kissed the freckle above Tim's belly button. "You're so beautiful," he murmured against his stomach. 

"I can accept those terms," Tim replied. Blush still covered his cheeks. Bruce smiled and leaned down to kiss him. 

They didn't leave his office for another hour. And they barely made it home without wrecking the car when Tim leaned over with a wicked grin and an order for Bruce to focus. Then they spent the weekend together in the silence and solitude of the cabin. 

On Monday when he sat down at his desk, pens still scattered on the floor there was an email from Lex Corp. 

He read the email. 

Then opened the attachment. 

A tiny blob sat in the middle of a ball of black. His hands shook as he reached for his phone. It rang three times before Tim's voice broke in with a hoarse 'hello.'

"Look at your email," Bruce said as a greeting. "Quick." 

"You woke me up to check my email?" Tim grumped at him. "What's so-" Tim's voice cut off. 

"Holy shit." He breathed when the attachment opened. Tim sat up and turned on the bedside lamp, rubbing at his eyes. But it was still there. The sonogram with a tiny little blip looking back at him like a weird tadpole. "B… is that…" 

"Yes," Bruce breathed and Tim stood up even though he didn't really know where he was going. 

"We have a baby?" He squeaked. 

"We _almost_ have a baby," Bruce agreed, his voice sounding a little rough. "But yeah, babe, we are pregnant."

"Holy shit," he breathed again beaming down at this tiny dot that would have meant nothing to anyone else. This dot that had made him feel so stressed and useless for so long now making his heart feel like it was about to pop. He laughed and wiped at his eyes that felt foggy, his throat still tight but he didn't care when his voice cracked. "What do we do? Are we supposed to do something now?"

"I don't know," Bruce admitted. "I haven't really thought this far ahead."

"We should tell people, right?" 

"No?" Bruce almost asked. "I don't think that you start telling people you are pregnant until ten weeks. Just in case anything happens."

Tim looked at the email again. This was a six week ultrasound. "So… we should wait. To be excited, right?" He swallowed. "Just in case anything happens. I mean our track record isn't the best. If something bad is going to happen, it would happen to us. Maybe we should-"

"Tim." 

He blinked. He hadn't even realized that he had gone unfocused, his mind starting to spiral into every possible situation and how they would move on from that. "Take a breath," Bruce told him and he did as he asked. "This is good. Lex has some of the best doctors in the world looking after our kid. He wants this to be a success. He'll make sure that we have the healthiest baby that anyone has ever seen." Tim took another breath and nodded, he was right. Bruce was always right. "You can be excited," he said softer. "We are going to have a baby." 

"We're having a baby," Tim repeated and smiled so wide that it almost split his face in two. " _Holy shit_ B!"

It was hard to hang up the phone even though the only thing that he had to say was that there was no way this was real. He got ready for work feeling clumsy. He had to redo the knot on his tie three times before he gave up and threw it back onto the bed and grabbed his bag before heading out. He grabbed coffee at the shop across the street from WE, the same place he had been working eight years ago when he met Bruce. The girl at the register looked at him nervously as he ordered and seemed confused when he asked for one of the coffee's to have a splash of milk. "I think It's weird too," he assured her and she almost smiled when she shakily passed him his carrier. 

Alexandra was as busy as ever when Tim got there and he was considerably early. Gotham was just starting to wake up around them, but he had learned in his five years with the company that the phones never slept. He was surprised that she had stayed so long, but Tim couldn't imagine the lobby without her. She was equal parts sweet and hard as hell and he was convinced he'd only managed to stay on her good side by spending so much time fueling her. Tim slipped her the newest horrible thing she loved and walked around to the other side of her desk rummaging through one of the drawers until he found a sharpie. She put her caller on hold and looked at him weirdly as he wrote 'DADDY' on one of the cups. "Do I want to know?" She asked. 

He shrugged. "It's pretty kinky." He grinned and she shoved him off as the next call came. He swiped his ID to get up to the top floor, setting a tea on Emily's empty desk. He checked his watch, she would be in about fifteen minutes. He left a sticky note on it promising details about their weekend over lunch this week before he made his way to Bruce's office. 

He was on the phone when Tim walked in, grinning at him in that way that made his left cheek dimple. Tim closed the door behind him walking over to his desk and pushing himself up onto it. Bruce ran a hand up his calf a few times while he ended his call, not taking his eyes off of him. "No tie?" 

Tim held up his hands that were still shaking and pressed his lips together. Bruce's eyes went soft. "I can't get them to stop." He sighed and shook his head. "So I abandoned my tie to get you coffee." He turned the cup as he passed it to Bruce so that he could see 'DADDY' written across the back of it. Bruce grinned and Tim leaned down to kiss him while it was still fresh. "Congratulations, Daddy," he muttered into his lips.

Bruce groaned. "That sounds so horrible." 

Tim just grinned and popped off his desk taking his own coffee with him. "You are a pervert," he accused. "Here I was trying to be sweet-"

"You could try again later?" Bruce offered, email already pulling his attention. "Lunch?"

"Can't. Lunch with Lucas." Tim sighed. "He wanted to talk to me about that thing. You know with Norman retiring and all." 

Bruce looked up at that, his eyes shining with pride. "Dinner then?" 

He pretended to think about his appointments. "I can make dinner work." He smiled and slipped out the door. 

It was a pretty quiet day and that felt strange. New project proposals lined his desk and he read through them trying to sort out the good from the bad. He had four separate piles by the end of the day and a new contract that came with a bigger office a few floors up. He kept the good stacks and distributed the rest to where they needed to be before he began to pack up his personal effects. 

Tim loved his office. Had loved it from the moment that he'd gotten it. It felt like a productive space even though it was an eclectic mess. He had his degrees framed on the wall and a few photos of him and his friends and of course some wedding photos. There were little things everywhere. Keepsakes and figures and a couple of needle points one of his interns had made him. He packed it all away carefully until it felt naked and strange and then he sat down to focus on the emails of congratulations that kept pouring in. And as warm as it made him feel, Tim couldn't help the little thrum every time he saw the word thinking of the little blip saved in his phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my children and welcome to the fan fiction! 
> 
> I hope that everyone is safe and as happy as you can be in times like these and I want you to all know that you are very loved and appreciated even when it feels like you are not ♡. 
> 
> Anyways, here we are at last! Part two of this never ending cute Saga that is Yellow. For those of you that are finding this fresh-- I hope you read the first A/N and followed the link to the first fic in the series. I know that some of you were hoping for some college Tim and I hope that you are not disappointed. Hopefully DNA and I will eventually get around to filling in some of the past in short stories in the future, but for now this was the story that needed to be written and we hope that you like it! 
> 
> You came for the fic, but I know you secretly stay for the tunes. Never fear, I made a [_playlist_](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6AY21ZNiAwx3dfNyltCEZH?si=9UTvahqrSzqsx3yr1tLJJg) to take your reading adventure to the next level. So make some tea, put on your headphones, and we'll see you next Monday♡


	2. Chapter 2

A month flew by quickly. Tim felt like he'd barely gotten a minute to breathe between transitioning into his new role and trying to figure out exactly what they needed to do for the baby. Bruce was in bliss. He wasn't working as much in the morning, waking Tim up with deep pulling kisses and smiling more than Tim had ever seen. Tim checked his email every morning, just waiting for some kind of bad news to ruin all of this perfect happiness. But it didn't. Instead they woke up on the Saturday that marked the start of the eleventh week with an updated sonogram. 

He leaned into Bruce's side looking at the blurry little photo. It had grown so much in such little time that it was almost scary. It had a big head and a little tiny body and little sticks coming off of it that he assumed were arms and legs. 

"We made it," Bruce muttered happily into his hair and put his arm around him to pull him in. "It's really happening." 

"We have tell Steph…" He looked up at Bruce and he was smiling wildly down at him. "What?"

"Want to have dinner with my parents tonight?" 

-

"Again?" Bruce sighed when the gate made a loud wrenching noise, but didn't open. He looked at the driver who was staring at Tim who had punched in the code. "This is fine," he told the driver and opened the door. Tim slid out after him. The driver looked suspicious, but backed out of the drive. "He really needs to just replace it," he told Tim. "How many years has it been?" 

"Eight," Tim offered. Bruce pushed open the gate. 

"Eight years," he said and shook his head. "That's-" His words were cut off as Tim pulled him down into a kiss. He backed up as Tim pushed. His back hit the vine covered fence and Tim pressed up against him. 

"You sound like such a dad," Tim said. He looked over to the gate, Bruce could see the mental calculations flit through his head before he turned and pulled so that Bruce was the one pressing him to the fence a few feet from where they had been standing. "We can be quick," Tim said as his hands went to Bruce's pants. 

"The gate did get stuck," Bruce replied. 

"Exactly. We wouldn't even be lying." 

Bruce nodded. "I don't have any-" 

"I do," Tim said and pulled out a pack of lube. He waved it with a smile. 

"You brought-" he stopped and looked at Tim. 

"You always have to be prepared. Every dad knows that," Tim said with a smile. Bruce caught his lips and lifted him up easily. Tim's legs wrapped around him as he held onto his shoulders. Bruce didn't wait another second before tearing open the packet and sliding his slick covered fingers into Tim. They kissed as he worked him open. 

"Shh," he whispered when his fingers had Tim crying out. "Do you want someone to hear you?" 

He could see Tim's eyes blow out and Bruce decided that he was ready. He swallowed Tim's cry as he lowered him down. He knew they wouldn't last long. Tim was already trembling around him and his own finish was quickly coming. Tim's hand fell down and grasped the fence while the other dug into his shoulder as he rocked with what little leverage he had. Tim caught his mouth and Bruce came first, but before he'd even finished Tim clenched tightly around him. He stopped moving and Tim slowly came down. He relaxed against the fence, then looked up at Bruce. 

"Okay, so maybe we should have done this on the way home," Tim said as he pulled his boxers back up. He grimaced. Bruce kissed him with a smile and straightened his tie. He swiped a strand of hair behind Tim's ear. 

"We can if you want." 

Tim rolled his eyes and grabbed his hand. "C'mon. We're going to be late now." 

He was pretty sure his mom took one look at them and knew what they'd been up to. His dad was too distraught about his gate motor to notice. Tim excused himself before they sat down for dinner. When he got back he sat down easily next to Bruce and took his hand. He squeezed it once and Bruce set down his glass of wine. 

"So mom, dad, we have news." He looked at Tim. "We're going to have a baby!" 

His parents froze, then their eyes met and he saw something pass between them, before his mom was up and pulling Tim into a tight hug. His dad did the same to him, then when they were done they switched. 

"Did they send you the sonogram?" she asked when she was done crying. Tim nodded. His hands were shaking as he pulled his phone out and opened the email. 

"He's so small," Tim said. His mom touched the screen and looked up at Bruce. She started crying again. 

"I didn't think I'd get to see this day." His dad wrapped her in a hug. "Our baby is having a baby," she whispered to him. He heard his dad's voice reassuring her. 

Tim was still looking at the sonogram. He put his arm around him. "I love you," he told him and kissed his head. 

-

Jason answered the door and practically dragged Tim in. He pushed him into the living room. 

"Look, babe. Tim is here." 

"Tim!" Stephanie called. She was sitting in the middle of the couch a mound of blankets on either side of her. Jason sat down next to one of the mounds and picked up his plate. Stephanie had her own balanced on her stomach. She had found that amusing for about a week then hated it. "What are you guys doing here?" 

"We got some news," Tim said. 

Bruce glanced at Jason and he saw when it hit him. He smiled as Tim told Stephanie. 

"What?" Stephanie said. 

Tim repeated it again. 

"Oh my God," she said with a smile. 

"I know," Tim replied. 

"Oh my God," she said again. 

"Steph?" Jason said. She looked over to him. Then down at her stomach. 

"My water just broke," she whispered. 

"What?" Jason said and panic streaked across his face. 

"Jay," Stephanie said and when he looked back at her, the panic was gone. 

"I'll call the doctor," Jason said and stepped away. 

Tim was already sitting next to Stephanie. She looked over to him and smiled. "You're going to have a baby too. They can be best friends, now." She squeezed his hand. He saw Tim wince and Stephanie's eyes close. Jason walked back into the room reciting instructions. By the time it was time to go to the hospital Stephanie was barely keeping it together. She only took Bruce's hand when he helped her to her feet. Then held on because he was her adult. On the elevator she leaned against Jason's chest as he kissed her hair every few floors. Then took Bruce's hand again as they walked to the car. Jason and Tim argued over traffic and directions while Stephanie sat with him in the back. She looked up at him. "Our husbands are idiots. What would they do without us?" she said and gripped his knee tightly as another contraction hit. 

Everything stopped when they got to the hospital. Bruce had been sure that he'd be delivering the baby in the backseat of the car. Then like the calm before the storm the contractions stopped. They played Uno while they waited. Stephanie cackled when she hit Jason with a draw four. Her eyes closed a second later. She looked at the three of them when she opened them again. 

"I think she's ready," she replied. Bruce cleared the table as Jason hit the call button. "We all agree that I won right?" Stephanie asked after another contraction. "My daughter will come into this world victorious." 

"Well half victorious. Her dad was holding half the deck," Tim said. Stephanie laughed at the glare Jason shot him. 

"I love you guys. So glad my family is here."

-

People had always told Tim how terrifying Stephanie was, but he had never seen it until she was screaming at Jason as she nearly broke Tim’s hand as she shoved her daughter out into the world. He had never seen anything more disgusting or more beautiful in his entire life. And by the end of it, Tim had a bruised hand, Stephanie was sobbing over her daughter, tripping over herself to apologize for being so mean to her husband-- and Bruce looked a little green. 

Tim pulled him out of the room with the excuse of giving the new family privacy and sat him down in the empty room next door before he went to grab him a bottle of water from the vending machine. By the time Tim got back to him he looked like he was feeling a little better. Tim opened the bottle for him and held it in front of him with a pointed look before Bruce sighed and took it. He took a drink and then another when he realised that it actually helped. Tim smiled and stepped closer between his legs, leaning in to kiss his forehead. 

“That was horrifying," Tim whispered into his hair. 

Bruce laughed hard and wrapped his arms around Tim, pulling him closer. He was wearing Tim’s very favorite smile when he looked up at him. The one that only Tim could pull out of him, making his left eye just slightly squintier than the right. He kissed it, because he couldn’t help himself. Also he never got to lean down to kiss Bruce and it felt so nice. “I am so happy we never have to see that again,” Bruce muttered when he pulled back. 

“Unless they have another one.” Tim grinned at him, Bruce pinched him and he cackled before an orderly stuck his head in the room to tell them they couldn’t be there-- before seeing who it was and telling them to use it as long as they wanted. The door shut behind them and Bruce looked up at Tim with a raised eyebrow. “Now?” he asked. “After that?” 

He pulled Tim onto his lap. “Why not?” He asked, biting his lip as he stood up, picking Tim up as he did and pushing him into the hospital bed. “We just experienced the miracle of life,” he teased, biting at Tim’s neck. “Maybe we should make our own.” 

“We already did.” Tim laughed and sucked in a hard breath when Bruce bit under his ear, his weakest point. “And that’s not how it works,” he barely got out before Bruce turned his head and sucked his tongue into his mouth. Bruce knew that he was convinced when he pulled back. He moved to go lock the door but Tim tugged him back down. “Leave it,” he whispered before he climbed back over him. 

-

Holding Harper was the most intimidating thing Tim had ever done. While no one had bat an eye when Bruce did it, he could feel Jason standing just behind him, waiting for Tim to drop her. All that did was make him feel like he was actually going to drop her and he panicked, handing her back to Bruce before he went to stand next to him. 

"I wasn't going to drop her," he muttered at Bruce when they got back to their building. "It's just weird holding a baby. You are supposed to support their head and their body in, like, one hand and it's hard to get them settled." 

"You did fine babe," Bruce told him, rubbing at his shoulders. "Jay is a new dad. He's just freaking out. I'm sure you will stand way too close to him with our kid too."

He blinked up at Bruce feeling exhausted enough that even the small revelations were hitting him hard. "I once saw Stephanie eat chicken nuggets out of a trashcan. They were still in a closed box and they were on the top. But still." He shook his head and unlocked their door. "Now she's someone's mom." 

"Maybe we wait to tell Harper until she's old enough to handle that shame." Bruce kissed his temple and dropped the car keys in the bowl by the door. 

They ate dinner and watched the newest episode of the insane business show that was on HBO making snarky comments about how wrong they got it. Tim was laying more on Bruce than the couch as he watched the evil father in the show bat his children down. He was glad that Bruce couldn't see his face as the credits started to roll. He dug his hands under Bruce's back and turned his cheek a little more into his chest. 

"Do you think I'll be a good dad?" He asked, almost too softly. He thought for a moment that Bruce might not have heard him since it took him a minute to respond.

But he paused the credits and hugged him closer to him. "Of course you will," Bruce told him. He kissed the top of Tim's head and nudged his head up. "Why would you ask that?" 

He frowned and pursed his lips together trying to put his thoughts together. He sat up a little, crawling up Bruce so that he was straddling him, his chin resting on his hands. "It's just that you have this amazing dad. You grew up… happy and normal." Bruce smirked at that. "Mostly normal," he corrected himself and Bruce pinched him. "And it shows. You were so natural with Harper. No one would doubt that you should have a kid. But I'm all fucked up by my parents. What if I fuck up our kid too?" 

"You won't," he said and rubbed up Tim's sides. Tim frowned. Bruce lifted his chin and stretched for a kiss. Tim's frown softened. "I was terrified of holding Harper."

"Really?" Tim asked. He looked surprised. Bruce nodded and touched Tim's cheek. 

"She was so small. She practically fit in my hand. I was sure I'd break her." 

Tim shook his head and scooted forward to kiss him. He kissed him and let Tim take the comfort that he obviously needed. When he pulled away, Tim laid his head down on his chest. 

"You're going to be an amazing dad. Do you want to know why?" Tim hummed and Bruce brushed his hand through his hair. "Because you already take care of all of us. You make sure Stephanie's eating real food. You talk Jason down when he's having a tough time. You are also the best husband I could ever ask for." Tim turned to look up at him. "You're going to love that little blob with all of the love you have in you." 

"Yeah?" Tim asked. 

"You'll watch all of the bad Disney movies with them." 

Tim snorted. "You mean all of the good ones." 

"You'll teach them how to burn pancakes."

"I'll teach them how to burn them just enough to get you to make them for them." Tim kissed him. 

"You'll eat nuggets with them when they have bad days." 

"Like I'd let our kid get addicted to nuggets," Tim said with a grin. Bruce traced it with his thumb. 

"You'll teach them how to ice skate." 

"You'll teach them how to climb trees." 

"You'll dress them in crazy outfits."

"Color is not crazy," Tim replied. 

"If you say so," he replied. Tim pinched him. He laughed then looked back at Tim. "I have no doubts that you're going to be a great dad. I'll remind you however many times you need me to, because we're doing this together." He hugged Tim against him. "You're not alone." 

-

"What's wrong with the house I sent you?" Tim asked as he walked in. 

"Other than the fact that there was one bathroom?" 

"It has two," Tim said and pulled out his phone. Bruce hummed and muted the TV. 

"Does it?" 

Tim sat down next to him and showed him the 3 bedroom 2 bath on the main page of the listing. Then flipped to the picture of the bathtub with the bay window above it. 

"Where is the second one?"

Tim frowned at him then flipped through the pictures. There was a picture of every room, but there wasn't a second bathroom. Bruce flipped back when Tim scrolled past the basement. Tim looked at him, then at where Bruce was pointing to the open door and the toilet tucked into the far corner of the basement. 

"That can't be," Tim said. Bruce shrugged. "Well yours wasn't any better," Tim chirped with a pout. 

"Mine was a brand new building." 

"It was boring," Tim replied. 

"Maybe, but we wouldn't have to send our guests downstairs to pee." Tim stuck his tongue out at him. "Plus I thought we agreed to stay downtown." 

"I know," Tim said. "I just thought I'd see what our options were." 

Bruce looked over to Tim who had backed out to the map. There were a lot more markers than Bruce had on his. He drew Tim in and turned the volume back up. He watched the show while Tim flipped through apartments. Every commercial break he'd show him a new option. Their list was getting longer and longer. 

-

"I don't think that's right."

"It's corpse pose," Bruce replied. Selina laughed. He turned to look at her. "You're late."

"I didn't really want to do yoga. I thought I'd skip ahead to the apartment shopping." 

He rolled his eyes as he pushed himself up. "Has Tim seen you in these pants?" He turned and Selina had her phone up obviously taking a picture of him. "Kitten. You are truly blessed," Selina narrated as she typed. He grabbed his clothes and walked upstairs. Selina's laugh echoed after him. 

"Do you remember when Tim was a sweet innocent boy?" Selina asked when he came back down in a pair of jeans and a sweater. 

"I remember when you thought he was," he replied and got another laugh. 

Tim had spent the last two weeks narrowing down the long list to only ten places. They'd seen a few on the weekend, but the rest only had availability during the week. Tim had just agreed to help Jamie, who had taken his old position, with a new project and couldn't clear space to go. Bruce had offered to go on his own, but Tim had texted him that Selina had agreed to join him. He was pretty sure Tim had texted her to not let him get his heart set on anything too boring. 

The real estate agent guided them through the first apartment, one of Bruce's, and while he couldn't really put his finger on any one thing that he didn't like about it he couldn't say that he liked anything about it either. 

"It was very off-white," Selina said as they walked down the street where they'd parked. 

"You can paint," he said for what felt like the hundredth time. Tim kept getting hung up on wall color. Selina made a face. 

They looked at a few more apartments before looking at a house on the very edge of their agreed radius. Selina loved it. He could see it in her eyes as soon as she touched the ornate door handle. He had to admit that it had charm. None of the door handles matched. There was stain glass in the bedroom and the back door. The stairs were wide and the dark wood drew him in. He had to admit that it looked better than it had in the pictures. The rooms were small. The master was barely bigger than the other two. He knew that he'd been spoiled by his bedroom at the apartment, but this was small. The only problem was that he could see Tim sitting on the bay window narrating the people in the park behind the house. He could picture them marking heights on the pillar in the kitchen. He could see the life they'd have here. He just didn't know if it was the life he wanted to have. 

"This is the one right?" Selina asked. "Tim told me that there was one that he had at the top of his list, but he wouldn't tell me which one. This has to be it." 

"I think so," he replied as they walked around the backyard. Selina was watching him when he glanced over at her. 

"You don't like it?" 

"It's perfect," he replied. There was even a treehouse in the backyard. Selina hummed and slid her arm through his. She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked back to the front to meet the agent. She smiled and asked them what they thought. "Keep it on the list," he said. She nodded and told them the next address. 

Tim was already home when he got back. He had empty cartons of Chinese stacked on the counter and was breaking up the mound of rice on the plate. He looked up and smiled and Bruce didn't think he'd ever loved him more. He wrapped him up in a hug and breathed in the faint scent of his shampoo. 

"You okay?" he asked. 

Bruce nodded and held him closer. "I missed you today," he said when he let him go. 

"I missed you too," Tim replied, though he looked like he wasn't sure what was going on. Bruce picked up the plates and Tim frowned at him before grabbing the drinks and following him into the living room. "So what did you think of them?" 

"I crossed off most of them. You were right. My choices are boring." 

Tim paused, fork halfway to his mouth. "You didn't keep any of yours?" 

"That house out off Cliffside is the perfect house," he said. 

"Why do you sound like you hate it then?" Tim asked.

He pushed at the chicken with his fork before stabbing it. Tim stole one of his broccolis with his chopsticks. He ate another piece then put his fork down. 

"I don't want to move out to the suburbs. I know Cliffside is still the city, technically, but it's not." He sighed. "I know what living outside of the city looks like. We'd be gone before the kids left for school. We'd get back by dinner, maybe. I only saw my dad on weekends. I don't want that. I like living downtown. I like being close to our favorite restaurants, and the shops we go to. I know that everything is new and _boring_ here. But it's-" he looked at Tim. "It's home."

"Then we'll stay here," Tim told him simply and squeezed at his fingers. Bruce blinked like he had expected Tim to put up a fight for living in the suburbs. "What?" He asked with a little smile. "Did you think I was going to drag you to Metropolis to get the house I want? I'm not an unreasonable man, Mr. Wayne."

A little glint of amusement broke through the blatant display of love on his face as he muttered, "No, you most certainly are not, Mr. Wayne." Bruce pushed his plate further onto the coffee table. 

"Then we'll keep looking here." Tim sighed in mockery of the burden. He set his plate down and climbed into Bruce's lap. "But that means we'll have to be open to negotiate what we are looking for." He knew his eyes were flashing fuck me when Bruce leaned in and bit his lip until Tim had to follow him back. He had been thinking about climbing him since Selina had sent him a picture of his ass in yoga pants. He reminded himself to thank Dick for that hobby later. "I hate when you're not at the office with me," he grumbled into Bruce's neck. "It's not like I'm going to go fuck you every hour-- but knowing I can't is almost painful." 

Bruce chuckled and pulled Tim's hair back, making him gasp, neck bent so he had to look down his nose at him. "Maybe we should get you an office next to mine," he said as he licked a stripe up his neck and a moan fell out of Tim before he could catch it. Fuck. How was he ever going to win this never ending game of seduction when Bruce was just so… so fucking Bruce?

"I'll just bring my laptop under your desk." He gasped when Bruce bit him and raked his fingers through his hair. "Suck you off… whenever I want," he barely got out, mind starting to become a pleasant warm mess like it always was when Bruce was kissing him. A large hand slid into the back of Tim's slacks and Bruce's fingers scraped up his ass. He slid a single finger between his cheeks and pushed it teasingly against him. "Fuck, _Bee_." He hissed before his mind and mouth were occupied by the tongue rubbing into his. 

It was tortuously slow. But Tim liked it that way, the knots in his stomach as he waited for each move, Bruce eyes watching his face for every shift in expression. He got Bruce out of his sweater as Bruce popped the last buttons on his shirt. Tim pulled off his belt and grabbed Bruce's hands, wrapping and securing him just tightly enough so that he couldn't break out of it. He looked at Tim in confusion, his eyes were still hazy with lust and he accepted Tim's kiss as an answer. He made a noise when Tim climbed off of his lap and pulled at the end of the belt that was sticking out until Bruce followed him up. He pulled his hands up so that he could slip into the ring of his arms and they walked back through the apartment together until Tim's back hit their bedroom door and he fumbled for the doorknob. They almost fell when the door opened, Tim barely able to catch them from spilling out over the floor and Bruce whined his name. 

He bit his lip. That was Tim's favorite. When Bruce had to wait for Tim to give him what he needed. Tim pulled Bruce back up and over to their bed, pushing him down. He went easily, falling back with a look that was both pensive and so very frustrated. Tim had gotten addicted to that look pretty quickly. It was the only time that Bruce was ever shy about anything - when he wanted Tim to fuck him. And with his cheeks flushed and his hands tied, Tim dragged it out by ripping off his pants and climbing between his legs. Bruce pulled at his waist with his tied hands but Tim didn't come down. 

"You have to tell me," Tim said softly and leaned down to lick between his lips when he just looked so fucking delicious. "What do you want?" 

"You know what I want," he muttered back. His voice was a low rasp and his face was red. 

Tim leaned down again, just close enough that Bruce could feel his lips moving but he couldn't catch them. "But I want you to tell me." 

Bruce groaned and Tim kissed him again, rolling his hips against Bruce's and he hissed, his eyes squeezing shut, his dick now rock hard against Tim's pants. "Your mouth."

Tim rolled again and raised an eyebrow. "Where?" He asked softly. When Bruce didn't answer, Tim kissed him again. "Here?" He breathed when Bruce was panting. Back arching up to be closer to him. He shook his head and Tim kissed down his neck and chest. He ducked under Bruce's arms and took his hands in his. He licked up Bruce's fingers and swallowed two all the way to the knuckle. "Here?" He asked again when Bruce groaned and he came back off. 

"N-no." He gasped and Tim kissed his wrist before sliding down the bed. 

He took Bruce's cock in his hand and licked from base to tip. He sucked him hard and wet, leaving his lips swollen and spit dripping down his chin before he pulled up and hoarsely asked, "Here?" 

"Fuck Tim." Bruce's eyes were hazy and his forearms were flexing to break apart and grab him, but he couldn't. 

Tim smirked at him and continued his descent. He spent a moment on Bruce's balls before he dipped just below and followed the soft skin to the spot he knew would drive Bruce wild. The noise the punched out of his husband was sheer perfection and Tim let loose. He kissed him, sucking at his ass until it was hot and soft and twitching. He spread his cheeks apart and groaned as he slipped his tongue inside him, feeling Bruce clench around it and he punched out his name. Tim licked up to his balls and back down a few times before he could feel Bruce quivering, his stomach tightening and pulled away, leaving him right in the edge. 

"No," Bruce moaned as Tim slid off the bed and kicked his pants off. He watched Tim with his lip between his teeth and he walked over to the bedside table and grabbed the lube out of the top drawer. He looked down at Bruce. He was so perfect and pretty, his tongue peaking out from behind his teeth as his mouth dropped open. 

The heat took his brain over again and he stepped up to the side of the bed, Bruce rolled until he was close enough to lick him and Tim gave in. He pulled at Bruce's hair until his head was far enough off of the bed to take Tim in deeper, almost distracting him enough to keep him there, but Tim pulled out of his mouth, leaving a bead of precum for Bruce to lick off of him as he left. He could barely compose himself as he walked slowly back to the foot of the bed. But he had to. That was part of the game. Tim stayed composed while he broke Bruce all the way down. Until Bruce was the one that needed _him_ and not the other way around. He poured the lube over his palm and pumped his dick a few times, crawling back between Bruce's legs and running his middle finger between his cheeks and into the heat of him. Bruce's lips parted so sweetly, the words Tim wanted almost there. He added another finger. 

"You know what I want," he told Bruce dangerously low. He added another finger and Bruce gasped out his name. "You have to say it baby," he told him as Bruce dragged his eyes out of space and looked at him, unable to hold his composure. Brows pulled so perfectly together with his lips red. His hands pulled up against his chest as if he were surrendering all of his power and the sheen of sweat over him making him look like he was being lit up inside. 

"Please, Tim… fuck me."

He grinned in victory and eased his fingers out of Bruce with one prologue graze against his prostate, making Bruce's head fall back. Tim dragged his dick down Bruce, leaving a trail of lube as he painted it across his ass and then he pushed into him. 

"Fuck!" Bruce ground out. Clenching around Tim hard in his surprise. Tim muttered to him and pumped his dick a few times before he loosened back up and Tim started moving again. 

He started slow, just rocking back and forward until Bruce got used to him again, making sure to knock against the ball of nerves that turned Bruce into a muttering mess. Tim would never forget the first time they did this, thinking that Bruce spoke more when he was being fucked than he did in everyday life. Praise poured out of his mouth and he shouted when Tim pulled almost all the way back and slammed back into him. He reached down for Tim with his tied hands and Tim grabbed them, pushing Bruce's leg up and over his shoulder so he could go faster. It didn't take long for Bruce to fall apart. Cumming so hard that it hit his chin. And seeing that was what did Tim in. 

He sat there in the technicolor afterglow as he came back down, kissing the back of Bruce's leg before he let it back down and climbed into Bruce' lap, pulling at the belt and letting his hands free. He grabbed Tim as soon as he could and pulled him down, rolling him into the mattress and kissing him like crazy. He was laughing when Bruce finally pulled back, smiling at Tim like he was the most perfect thing in the world. He wished Bruce could see what he looked like, when he was tied up and flushed under him. Then he would know what perfect really was. 

"You know, Selina accused you of being innocent today." 

Tim snorted and ran his hands down Bruce's side until he could grab his ass. "That was before yoga pants," he breathed. "Yoga pants ruin everything. "

-

They were back at square one. Their agent had smiled when they'd told her, but it looked strained. She went back to pulling listings downtown and after a few days of her asking, Tim agreed that maybe they wouldn't mind a house that needed to be remodeled. He'd smiled over to Bruce and said as long as it had good bones. Bruce had rolled his eyes as Tim crawled across the couch and into his pants. 

"Is it always this hard?" Tim asked after another showing. 

"I imagine it's harder for people who don't have the money we do," Bruce replied. Tim glared at him before nodding and admitting he was right. He tugged him under his arm. 

"Hey, there is one for sale," Tim said. They were only a few blocks from the office. He let Tim tug him across the street. Tim looked at the building as Bruce looked at the sale sign on the front door. 

"The entire building is for sale," Bruce said. Tim walked around the corner into the side alley. 

"They've got fire escapes. And look at the windows." Tim pointed to tall and narrow windows. Bruce followed his finger up the five stories. Tim looked over to him. "Let's see if a window is open." They walked around, but all of the ground floor windows were boarded up. When they reached a fire escape that was just a little lower than the rest Tim tugged on Bruce's arm. "C'mon, give me a boost." 

"You can't be serious. That thing looks like it could fall any second." 

"They always look like that. Come on. I know you'll catch me." Tim smiled and Bruce rolled his eyes, but stepped up. Tim yanked on the fire escape. It groaned, but didn't come crashing down on them. Tim pulled himself up and onto the ladder. There was a click and the ladder came down right in front of Bruce. He looked up and saw Tim smiling at him. "You know you're curious." 

It took four storeys before they found a window that had been broken and the wood was loose. Bruce looked down, looked at Tim, and kicked the wood panel. It popped off and Tim clapped. He stepped through first, then held his hand out for Tim to take as he climbed in. Tim tripped and fell against him. He corrected him and looked around. 

The room was large. It had high ceilings and dark hardwood floors. They needed some care. Other than the window they'd come in through the rest of the apartment didn't look too bad. They walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. Tim touched the counter tops, and the tarnished cabinet pulls. He walked through the bedrooms, all of them were small. But they could change that. Tim pushed open the front door and gasped. Bruce put down the broken radio that had been sitting on the floor and slid out of the door. The stairwell came up in the middle of the building. It was one long circle staircase. Tim leaned over the edge and Bruce had the urge to pull him back. Tim turned and looked at him. Bruce knew. 

"This is it."

-

"You bought a building?" Stephanie asked as she walked in without knocking. Bruce was standing in the kitchen drinking a glass of water. Jason walked in behind her with Harper in her carrier and their bag draped over his shoulder. He took one look at Bruce and winced. 

"Sorry," Jason offered. He shook his head, he was used to Stephanie now. 

"Seriously? An entire building?" 

"I'm going to go grab a shirt," he mumbled as Stephanie took Harper from Jason and made herself at home in the living room. "Stephanie and Jason are here," he said with a smile as he walked into their bedroom. Tim had already put a shirt on and was pulling on pants. He tossed Bruce a shirt and motioned for him to lean down. He did and got a kiss. 

"We're going to break our record once they are gone," Tim promised and headed down. Bruce watched him go and had to take a breath to steady himself before following after him. 

"A building?" Stephanie asked. 

"A small one," Tim replied. 

"A small one?" Stephanie parroted back at him. 

"How much did your 'small building' cost?" Jason asked, looking at Bruce. 

"Umm," Tim said and looked at Bruce. "It wasn't that much." 

"How much?" Stephanie asked flatly. Jason hadn't looked away from Bruce. 

"2 million?" Jason asked. He had seen the price of the condos they had been looking at. He didn't think he'd ever seen Jason so stupified before. 

"Three?" Stephanie asked. 

"More," Tim whispered. 

"5?" Jason asked and looked between them. "More?". 

"Nine," Tim started. 

"And a half," he added. 

"Million." 

"What?!" Stephanie shouted and nearly dropped Harper. 

"Once we fix it up, the rest of the units in the building will be income properties. We'll be making money," Tim said. 

"So wait. You spent ten million dollars and you're going to spend more money?!" Stephanie asked, her voice turning into a squeak as she finished. 

Jason sat down. The look on his face was completely shell-shocked. "I know you're rich, but like, not _that_ rich." 

"That's why I told you not to fight them on paying for dinner," Stephanie said and rubbed Jason's back. 

"You complained about having to buy a water bottle at the gym last month!" Jason said and pointed at Bruce. 

"Because I don't like the taste, not because of the cost," he replied. 

"Did you lose your water bottle again?" Tim asked. "You could be purposely throwing them away and not lose them as often." 

"I found it," he said and kissed Tim's cheek. He could see the tension in his shoulders. Money was still a sensitive subject for them. Tim didn't worry about it as much as he used to. Tim had offered to keep separate accounts when they got married and it had taken nearly their entire first year of marriage for him to agree to joint accounts. So Tim had mostly gotten used to being part of the richest family in Gotham, but he still worried about what other people thought about it. 

"Do you want to see some of the designs they gave us?" Bruce asked Stephanie and Jason. 

"Of course," Stephanie said. 

"The apartments are decently sized right now, but we thought we'd simplify things and just turn each floor into two units," Tim said and started explaining their plans. He watched him with a smile. "They're supposed to start work next week." 

"Wait. Are you planning on moving before the baby's born?" Stephanie asked. 

"It would be easier than moving after," Tim replied. He was smiling down at the mocked up nursery on the screen. 

"So you're going to renovate, move, shop, and baby proof all in the next six months?" 

"Yeah?" Tim replied and looked at Stephanie then back to Bruce. 

"It'll be fine," Bruce said. Stephanie looked over to Jason and for the first time Bruce wondered if maybe they'd bit off more than they could chew. 

\---

It was not fine. 

"What do you mean?" Tim asked their realtor not even a month later, standing in the hallway outside of the conference room on the top floor. He had been preparing to give his first presentation on the review of new projects proposals in front of every department head in the company when Rebecca called with the update. 

"You're apartment sold!" She said cheerily. Like them being shoved out of their apartment six months ahead of schedule was exciting. "They offered to pay in full and we should be in escrow by the end of the week." She went on but he could see everyone starting to pile in and get settled. Bruce was in a conversation and looked up to meet his eye across the walkway. He frowned at his expression. "I'll send the paper work your way?" 

Tim squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't have the space in his brain to deal with this at the moment. This was his first chance to impress his peers and really make a name for himself in this company. A company that he now shared a name with. He could not let this throw him off and he would not let Bruce down. "Yes. The papers. We'll go over them tonight." 

"Perfect! Goodbye Mr. Wayne," she said cheerily and hung up as Lucas stuck his head out into the hall and smiled at him. 

"Tim, we are ready for you," he said beaming at him. Tim had gone over his presentation with him a handful of times and his reaction was always positive and excited. Tim could do this. He straightened his jacket and tucked his phone into his pocket, opening his tablet to his notes before he met him at the door. 

He let the conversation melt off his shoulders as he walked into the conference room, a hush washed over the group gathered there pushing him to stand a little taller. He could see all of them glancing back at Bruce like they were wondering if he was going to cut Tim a break because he was his husband, but Tim knew better. He had been saving this presentation, not letting Bruce look at any of it so that he would get all of the information fresh with everyone else. He met his eyes across the table as Lucas introduced Tim and waited. He could see that Bruce was excited, that waiting to see what was coming next from their company and what Tim thought about them had killed him. 

"Ready when you are, Mr. Wayne," Bruce told him. His voice was plain and his expression normal to everyone else in the room but Tim could see what was underneath it.

Tim smiled and addressed the table, and clicked over to the first slide in his presentation. "Let's begin."

-

"Wonderful presentation," Warren told him on the way out, shaking his hand yet again. He had cornered Tim quickly after they had been released with one of the other VPs to compliment him on the details of each study and the success rates of the projects he had championed. "I look forward to more." He winked and filed out of the room with the others. 

Tim stepped out after him, walking toward Lucas who was just down the hall talking to one of the women in PR when his name was called. He turned back to see Bruce standing just over his shoulder. He shifted so that he could take the hand that was offered to him, unable to hide his smirk at the obvious pride in Bruce's eyes. "You seem to have an answer for everything, Mr. Wayne," he told him, heat dripping all over his words. 

"It would be unfair not to tell you that I have an intimate knowledge of what the CEO values." He bat his eyes playfully up at Bruce. "But yes, I am very impressive."

Bruce grinned at that. "Do you have dinner plans, Mr. Wayne?" 

Tim made a show of looking at his watch. "I was going to go home, have a glass of wine with my husband. Maybe figure out where we are going to live for the next six months." 

That caught Bruce off guard. "What?" 

Tim pulled his email up on his tablet and showed him the attachments Rachel had sent over. "We sold the apartment," he groaned miserably. Bruce sighed and put his arm around his shoulders so Tim could lean on him as they walked back toward his office. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You write fanfic for yourself right? Bless Prubbs for gifting me with some glorious bottom Bruce that I love just soooo much.
> 
> Thanks for reading. 
> 
> -DNA


	3. Chapter 3

It was sad having to pack up their apartment. It had been Tim's favorite place for so long and he hadn't really stopped to consider that they would be leaving it behind. He was mopey and stressed out and Bruce was doing everything he could to make things as seamless as possible. When the movers came to gather all of their things and take what they needed to the new apartments Bruce dragged Tim away from it. Insisting that they had other things they needed to do. 

"What are we doing?" Ha asked, trying to shake his mood when they pulled up in front of a shop. 

"Shopping," Bruce told him, like that should be obvious and smirked when he could see that he had piqued Tim's interest. He followed Bruce out of the car and slipped his hand into his as they walked into the large store with room displays everywhere. He looked up at his husband confused. "I thought we could pick some new things out. All of our furniture is stuff I already had when you moved in. This way we can get _our_ stuff." 

Tim's throat felt tight and he squeezed Bruce's hand. He didn't know what he had ever done to deserve a match as wonderful as Bruce. He was always so good at making Tim feel better even when he didn't know what was wrong and he never made him feel like the burden that Tim often felt he was. He tugged at the collar of his pull over and pushed up onto his toes to kiss him wondering if he would ever be able to replay this man for everything that he was. "Everything has to be Yellow," he said very seriously. "And red and green." 

As always, Bruce never missed a beat. "Then our house will always look like Christmas." 

"You love Christmas," Tim told him as he pulled him over to the first display. 

Bruce kissed his hand and muttered, "I love you." So low that Tim wasn't sure if he had been meant to hear it.

When they got to the building the movers were leaving. Bruce unlocked the front doors and they walked into the lobby--and all of their belongings. His phone chimed. Tim stared at the stacks of boxes and the furniture five floors below where it belonged.

"The foreman wouldn't let them take anything up," he told Tim as he listened to the voicemail. "They said they would come back." Tim looked at him and their mood from the store had faded quickly. He tugged him in. "We can go back to the apartment." 

"No," Tim said. "I don't want to see it all empty and sad. It'll just make me sad. I want to stay here. It's our only home now." 

"I don't know why they wouldn't let them up," Bruce said and took a step to the stairs. The elevator in the back of the building was still being worked on. Their contractor had wanted to replace it, but Bruce liked the gate and to keep it they'd have to repair it. Tim hadn't cared, but Bruce wasn't sure that he had actually been listening to him when he'd ranted about it while he worked on his presentation. 

Tim pushed open the door and stopped. "This might be why." Bruce looked at the emptiness where their living room floor used to be. He grabbed his phone and opened his email. There sitting between an email from his dad about fertilizer for the rose bushes and an update from Lex was an email from their contractor. "They found rot in the subfloor. He said he went through the entire apartment and they got everything out." Tim was walking along the plywood spread out like a bridge across the studs. "The kitchen, our bedroom, since they had taken that completely to studs last week, and the bathroom are the only good floors." 

Tim sat down on the plywood and let his legs fall down between joists into the floor below them. "What did we get into?" Tim asked and looked up at him. 

"We're building our perfect home," he said and slid past him onto the stable floor. "Come on, let's look at our bedroom. He said they had finished the drywall." Tim took his hand and let himself get pulled down the hall to their bedroom. It was separate from the other three rooms with the main living spaces between them. Bruce walked in and touched the bare wall. Tim let out a relieved breath as he walked up to the windows and ran his hand over the sill. The bathroom had a toilet and the shower didn't have any walls yet, just a head and a hole for the drain. The tile was supposed to have been installed already. 

He reopened his email when he realized what he'd skipped over. Lex had sent them an email. His heart skipped a beat when he opened the email. They couldn't handle bad news. He skimmed the body before opening the attachment. 

"Bruce?" Tim asked from the bathroom doorway. He looked up at Tim. "What's wrong?" 

"Nothing," he breathed. "Nothing. Lex sent another ultrasound." He turned his phone and Tim pulled it quickly from his hands. Bruce kissed the side of Tim's head and looked down at the blurry little blob as the video played. 

"Are those feet?" Tim asked and touched the screen. 

"His feet," he confirmed. Tim made a wounded noise and let his hand fall back as he continued to watch. They watched the entire thing. Then watched it again as they sat in the window sill in their bedroom. 

"We're having a boy." 

Lex had told them that it was highly likely that they would have a boy, but to look at his feet and his body and his head. Tim forwarded the email to Martha and Thomas and then looked at Bruce. 

"I need a bed in this room like ten minutes ago. And then I'm going to need you naked." Bruce smiled. 

"Yes, sir," he replied and headed back downstairs. 

Tim had thought to grab a sheet as they pushed their mattress up 5 flights of stairs and across the cavern of death that was the majority of their apartment. The only problem was, as Bruce laid there with Tim curled up kissing his chest as he caught his breath, that it wasn't actually a sheet, but their shower curtain. It worked to cover them and Tim didn't seem to mind the stiff fabric over him. 

"First sex in our new home," Tim said and smiled up at him. 

"Top 10," Bruce said. Tim hit him on the shoulder. 

"No! Not every first can be good. Some firsts have to suck." 

"None of our firsts suck," he said and rolled so he was over Tim, who was smiling up at him with an indulgent look. 

"We've gotten better at all of them," Tim said. 

"Still doesn't mean they sucked." 

"You're ridiculous," Tim said and pulled Bruce down so he could kiss him. 

-

"You're having a demon," Stephanie said. 

"What?" Bruce whispered and looked down. 

"He's got horns!" 

"Those are his hands," he said. "You didn't tell Tim that did you?" 

"No. I'm not stupid. But you are straight up about to have the child of Satan. I can feel it. Those cute little toes," her voice wobbled and tears pricked in her eyes. "Full of evil." She wiped her eyes and sniffled. "Fuck all these cute ass babies. Did you see how cute my baby girl is today?" She asked. Jason was playing with her across the room. 

"Where is Tim anyway?" Stephanie asked. 

"He got caught at work." 

"You mean he is working more so he doesn't have to go home to the chaos that your house is." 

"I was thinking I might ask my parents if we could stay at the manor until they get the floor finished. The drive will suck, but we at least wouldn't have to worry about rabies." Stephanie looked surprised. "Oh we didn't tell you? A few nights ago an entire colony of bats flew through our bedroom. It was kind of amazing, but not something we want repeating." 

“I know I’m late, I’m sorry.” Tim sighed as he pushed into Jason and Stephanies apartment, pulling his jacket off at the door. He was exhausted and immediately looked around to find Bruce so that he could bury himself in him. Jason was on the floor in the living room with Harper, laying on his side as he watched her doing nothing like it was the greatest thing in the world. Tim was more interested in the floors. Actual floors with carpet and not just plywood that made weird noises when Bruce stood in one place too long. 

Bruce was sitting at the kitchen counter with Stephanie who looked like she had been crying. Tim frowned and walked over to them, pulling Bruce’s legs open so that he could step in as close as possible before smothering his face into his shirt. “What did you do to Stephanie?” he asked when he had gotten three full sniffs of glorious Bruce smell. 

“I didn’t do anything.” he chuckled, the sound echoing pleasantly in Tim’s ear. 

Stephanie made an offended noise. “You thought that he made me cry and you _still_ hugged him?” she demanded. 

“I hugged him because _I_ needed a Bruce hug. It had nothing to do with rewarding my husband for possible bad behavior," he told her and after a moment she nodded and let it go. She too knew the power of Bruce’s hugs. There was no denying that even though he gave them sparingly to most people-- they were superior to every other hug from every other person.

“We were just looking at your new sonogram,” Stephanie said with a little pleased wiggle. She looked back down at Bruce’s phone absolutely delighted. Sometimes Tim thought that she was more excited about them having a baby than he was and then he reminded himself that that would be horrible and of course he was ecstatic to have his son. He was just stressed out about the veteran night with the Ice Bats that WE was hosting as part of the roll out for some of their new medical supplies. Selina had been emailing him round the clock and he knew that he could ask Lucas for help-- but this was his last project before he left for new parent leave and he wanted to remind everyone _why_ they had decided to promote him. “Have you two thought of any names yet?” Stephanie asked, pulling Tim out of the spiral he was slowly starting to spin in. 

“Actually, no,” Bruce said and Tim looked up at him curiously. “We haven’t really talked about it.” 

“That’s because Bruce is going to want to name him something ridiculous like Basil or Saffron.” Tim smirked. 

Bruce glared at him. “Why do you automatically assume that I’m going to name our child after food?” 

“Because you want to name everything after food.” Tim yawned and turned in the circle of his arms so that he could lean back against him and look at Stephanie. 

“He has a point.” She grinned. 

“I named our dog Luis.” Bruce complained, pulling Tim in closer and resting his chin on the top of his head. He smiled thinking of the old mutt. He missed him. “That is a perfectly practical and classic name.” 

“I like classic names.” Tim sighed happily. “We both have them, maybe we should give our kid one too? He smiled up at Bruce, “What about Thomas?” he offered. 

Bruce’s smile was soft and gooey when he met his eyes, but Stephanie shook her head. “He doesn’t look like a Thomas.” 

“He doesn’t look like anything," Tim argued. 

“This is your child, Timothy. Respect the blob!” She told him shaking the picture at them before she settled back in the chair again and took a deep breath. “Give me more options.” 

They went back and forth for a while, running through a mental list of all the male leads of classic novels that they knew. Jason had made a particularly strong argument for Darcy, but it didn’t feel right to anyone else. Jason just sulked on the couch and gave Harper a bottle when she got fussy. But they did decide that they liked the letter D. 

“D'Artagnan,” Tim said finally after a few hours had passed and Stephanie had broken out the wine. Bruce snorted and reasoned that they needed four kids for that to work, but Stephanie interrupted them. 

“What about Damian?” She said with a little evil smile. “Since he looks like a demon and all.” 

Bruce looked like he was about to argue with her about the demon thing, but Tim rolled the name over in his head and smiled when it hit the little sore spot in his chest that their baby had put there. “I like Damian," he said softly. He was still leaning back against Bruce, and turned just enough so he could look fully at him. 

The fight fell out of Bruce’s eyes almost instantly and after a moment he smiled. “I like Damian too," he muttered. Stephanie made a barf noise when they kissed. 

-

A month flew by before Tim had known where it went. The apartment was finally starting to come together. The drywall went up quickly after the plumbing and electric was finally finished and after that they finally put down the hard wood. It felt like everything was finally going right, but Tim had been working six day weeks, sometimes taking calls on the seventh, and his nerves were razor thin. 

“No, not there!” he snapped at the movers again when they put the new dresser on the wrong wall of the room. “The rug needs to go down first. And where is the bed frame?” Tim sighed walking out of the room to find it himself. 

He was digging through a few of the new furniture pieces to find the bedside tables when Bruce grabbed his elbow and pulled him out of the pile. “Sorry, babe but we have to go,” he told him. 

Tim blinked. He had to slow his words down in his head before he could respond, take in Bruce’s sorry expression before he could prepare himself to process what was coming. “Why? What happened?” 

“We have to go to the stadium.” 

Tim’s heart dropped, but he nodded letting Bruce grab his jacket while he pulled his shoes on. They took a cab to the stadium and Bruce listened to Tim go over list after list as he tried to figure out what was wrong. They’d had everything for the event the next day set up before he had left work that afternoon. He didn’t know what could have happened in such a small amount of time, but he knew that it had to be big. 

The security guard let them in with a little smile but Bruce didn’t give Tim a moment to think about why he was so happy. He pulled him into the entrance that led down into the locker room and out onto the ice, making Tim stop before they made it through the doorway. 

“You have to put on skates,” Bruce told him very seriously. 

“It doesn’t matter B,” Tim told him impatiently. “And you know I can’t-” 

“It’s a rule, Tim,” Bruce told him in a no nonsense way, clearly telling Tim that he wouldn’t be letting him into the arena without them on. Tim took the skates from Bruce and shoved them on, annoyance growing at how hard it was to lace them up. Bruce eventually took pity and helped him before he pulled him up, keeping his hand as they walked out into the stadium. 

It looked nothing like it had when Tim left. The lights were dimmed like they usually were at the start of games, a blue hue on the ice and the boards had been covered in twinkling lights. Tim swallowed hard, stopping to look at it all before Bruce pulled on his hand, making Tim stumble after him. As soon as he stepped out, the sound kicked on and their wedding song started to play. Tim let out a shaky laugh as his throat tightened and his eyes watered. Bruce squeezed his hand and kissed the top of his head as he turned so that he was skating backwards in front of him. 

“I told you I would take you ice skating eventually,” Bruce said softly, pulling Tim all the way up against him. 

Tim just shook his head. He didn’t know what to say. So he reached up and yanked Bruce down so that he could kiss the ever loving shit out of him. When they broke apart, Tim sighed and let Bruce guide him in clumsy circles. “I have been horrible lately,” Tim muttered in an apology. 

“Not possible," Bruce said softly. “But after this project, I’m not letting you take on anything else.” he put on his boss's voice as he told him. “It’s not a healthy work/life balance, and we still have to baby proof the apartment.” The bossiness fell away easily though. “You don’t have to do all of these things alone. You aren’t going to get fired because we are having a baby. That’s why we have leave.” 

“I know.” Tim sighed. Because he _did_ know that. He knew that every employee at WE had great benefits and parental leave-- but this was different. Tim didn’t know if he was ready to leave work. He felt like he was just getting started and he still had so much to prove. But Bruce was the CEO of the company. He couldn’t just leave-- not without putting more systems in place. Tim was the obvious choice. “I know,” he repeated. “After this, I’m done. I promise.” 

“Good,” Bruce said simply, ending the subject right there. “Now--” he let go of Tim’s hand and took a quick slide away. 

Tim made an ugly noise and reached after him, stumbling over literally nothing and just barely managing to stay up. “Bruce!” He whined, taking a shaky step after him. 

“You can do it,” he chuckled. “Just slide one foot and then the next.” Tim barely made it to him before he finally fell. But at least he managed to take Bruce down with him. 

Bruce laughed as they laid on the ice. He had known that Tim had never been skating before, but he hadn't expected him to be quite so bad. He took his time teaching him. They fell a few more times, but Tim looked over to him as they skated away from the boards and smiled. He hadn't seen him look that relaxed in a while. He skated around him and then slid in front of him. 

"I have one more surprise for you," he said and pulled Tim over to the bench. He pointed up and Tim laughed as the kiss cam of their first date started playing. "Happy Anniversary," he whispered against his neck. Tim chuckled and pulled Bruce's arms around him. 

"Shouldn't we be celebrating the day I dropped the coffee?" 

"If you mean threw it on me, yes. I have that written down too. I hope you're wearing white." He bit Tim's shoulder as the video started over. 

"Thank you," Tim said. Bruce kissed him then slid away with a grin. Tim chased after him slowly. He caught Tim before he could fall and Tim pulled him down to kiss him. Music started playing and Bruce chuckled. "Looks like we're out of time."

-

"Why are you being so weird?" Tim asked as they walked back up to their apartment. Bruce had a bag of take out on his wrist and tugged Tim back before he could open the door. 

"Close your eyes," Bruce told him. "Please?" Tim rolled his eyes but covered them with his hands. He opened the door and pushed it open. He set the bag down and smiled before pulling Tim into the middle of the entryway. He wrapped his arms around him as he stepped behind him and told him to open his eyes. 

"Oh wow it's chaos," Tim said drily then dropped his hand. His breath caught as he looked at the rug that they'd spent an hour laying on in the store while Tim worked out a few work issues in the middle of their living room with the couch they'd picked out. The art they'd argued about for weeks was hung on the walls. Everything was as it had been in their mind. Tim turned around and looked up at him. The question clear on his face. 

"I called in reinforcements," he said. He had bribed Selina, Steph, and Barbara a few days before. Stephanie had done all of the _Tim_ research . Barbara made the lists. And Selina hired the men. Tim touched the kitchen cabinets and the counters. He walked through each of the rooms. He stopped in the nursery, still standing empty, and looked up at Bruce with a frown. "I wanted us to do this room together." 

"How did I get so lucky?" Tim asked and crooked his finger as he walked up to him. Bruce smiled and leaned down as Tim pushed up onto his toes to kiss him. He pulled him in. "I love you," Tim breathed. 

Bruce smiled and lifted him up. "We haven't seen the bedroom." 

Tim chuckled before wrapping his arms around him. They walked through the house and Bruce saw little things that he knew Tim would change, tweaks that would make it theirs, but those could wait. 

"Wait! Dinner," Tim cried. Bruce turned, grabbed the bag, and headed to the bedroom. 

-

"Hey Tim, you haven't seen Bruce this afternoon have you?" Emily asked, her voice far away. 

Bruce's eyes flicked up to Tim who was staring open mouthed at him. Cheeks flushed and eyes blown nearly black. 

Tim swallowed before leaning over to hit his intercom. "No, Emily. He said he had lunch with an-" Bruce swallowed around Tim. "-investor." 

"Okay. If you see him, will you tell him that his Dad has called twice now about lunch tomorrow?" 

"Will do," Tim replied and hit the intercom. Bruce smirked and pulled off. 

"I should probably call him back." 

Tim grabbed his hair. He flicked his eyes up. "We're not done here." Bruce chuckled as he leaned back in. Tim's fingers slid from his hair to the edge of his desk as Bruce let his own hand drop away and took him deeper in. Tim's phone started ringing and Tim reached for it. Bruce kept going. He felt Tim twitch in his mouth as he croaked out a "Wayne." 

Bruce's eyes flicked up to Tim who was watching him as he listened. Tim's eyes flicked to the side. Then down. "Really?" Bruce raised an eyebrow, but he felt Tim twitch and knew he was close. 

"Ah," Tim gasped when he pressed a finger back behind his balls. "We'll- we'll be right there." 

"Hmm, yeah. Thanks." Tim hung up and with a single thrust came. Bruce swallowed around him until he heard Tim whimper then let him go. 

"That--that was Lex Corp." Bruce looked up at Tim. "It's time." 

"Fuck," he breathed. 

-

It felt strange sitting in the waiting room while their son was being born. He held onto Tim's shaking knee and watched the clock. It had been an hour since they arrived. An hour of knowing nothing. An hour of waiting. An hour of their family texting. 

"They said that it would be-" Tim started. Bruce knew he was trying to reassure himself, but he didn't get to finish it. A nurse in pale purple scrubs stepped through the door and smiled. 

"You can see him now," she said. Tim was up and through the door, his hand closed tightly around Bruce's as they followed the nurse down the hall. They walked up to the glass wall and stopped to look out at the array of babies. Tim smiled and pointed at a head of black waves. 

"That's him," he said. He stared at the baby and wondered how he could be so sure. The tiny faces all looked the same. The nurse walked up to the incubator and Tim squeezed his hand. "I told you." 

She picked up the tiny bundle and walked over to another door. Tim dragged him over. He could see the excitement in his eyes. The nurse looked at them both. Tim's eyes grew wide as he looked up at Bruce and stepped slightly behind him. Bruce took the bundle, their baby boy and held him in his arms. He looked down at him with his frown and his tiny fingers gripping the edge of the blanket so tightly. He didn't know how he hadn't known. How he hadn't looked at this little being and known immediately that he was _theirs._ "Damian," he whispered and brushed his finger against his hair. 

Tim watched the way that Bruce looked at Damian, his eyes turning into a mushy goo and his smile shifting in a way that Tim had never seen before. He always knew that Bruce was a big guy, but Tim had never really thought about just how big he was until he was watching him coo at something so small. Their son. They had a son. Tim felt like his stomach had dropped out from the bottom when Bruce looked up at him with watery eyes, beaming with absolute and pure pride and adoration. He snapped a picture of him and Bruce laughed and moved forward, giving Tim only a second to panic before he placed the baby in his arms. 

It was like all of the air fell out of him and he forgot how to be a person. His breath came out stifled and he could feel his biceps tighten slightly wanting to hold on tighter to their son but knowing that was a bad idea. He looked down at the little baby. He could see so much Bruce in him. In his little nose and the dark mess of hair on his head. He wondered if he would ever see any of himself in Damian. He wondered if he really wanted too. 

“We just have a few things to straighten out. Last minute paperwork," she told them and Tim looked up, nodding slowly as Bruce kissed his temple and followed after her, leaving Tim alone in the hallway with their baby. He felt a panic grip at his throat and then at the same time he melted into a puddle when Damian yawned. Very carefully Tim moved his hand and brushed the back of his fingers over Damian’s cheek. He made a little noise that almost destroyed Tim. 

And then Bruce was back with his arm around him and a perfect smile on his face. “You ready?” he asked. Tim nodded although he felt anything but ready and handed Damian back to Bruce so that he could tuck him so very carefully into his car seat. 

-

The next week was the busiest week of Tim’s life. If he had thought the week leading up to their wedding was bad, it was nothing compared to the constant parade of people in and out of their apartment after the baby came. 

Damian had been perfect the first night they brought him home. He slept well and woke up, cracking open his insanely blue eyes that looked like they had been photocopied from Bruce’s face straight onto his. And as soon as they opened, he was wailing. Tim and Bruce tried everything to try and get him to eat, putting formula into every bottle they had until they finally found one that he would take-- or maybe he just got too hungry to wait. Martha was full of advice. She called Bruce every hour to get updates since she wasn’t well enough to come over and they hadn’t had the chance to go by yet while they were orchestrating getting Tim’s temporary replacement settled into his job while he was on leave. Tim was on constant calls to the office while Bruce juggled Damian and his own work from home until finally Stephanie and Barbara showed up and took over. 

It was like he could finally breathe again. He watched Barbara feed Damian without any issues and shook his head. “How?” he demanded, wanting to lay his head down on the kitchen table, he heard Bruce chuckled from the stove. “Are you a wizard?” 

She laughed and shook her head, adjusting the feeding pillow around her waist. “You just get used to it," she promised and looked through the kitchen to the living room where Dick was playing chess with Jason and Stephanie was watching Carrie play and coo over Harper on the carpet. “It takes time. But you’ll get the hang of it.” 

Tim sighed and rubbed at his eyes wondering if he would ever stop feeling so tired. “I hope you are right.” He sighed and looked up when someone knocked on the door. 

“I’ve got it!” Dick told everyone and jumped up to answer it. 

“Here," Barbara said, shifting so that Tim could take Damian. 

“Oh, no.” Tim shook his head. “He looks comfortable and I don’t-” 

“He’ll be fine," she promised with a smile. “Come on.” 

Tim sighed and shifted forward, taking Damian when she handed him back. He made a little noise of discomfort before he got the bottle where he wanted it and his little hand grabbed at Tim’s fingers. He knew that he was smiling like an idiot but he didn’t know how to turn it off. He smiled stupidly and Barbara and then Bruce before Dick stuck his head around the corner with his brow pulled in. 

“Tim?” he bit at his bottom lip and looked between him and Bruce, “It’s, uh… your dad.”

The smile dropped off of Bruce’s face immediately as his expression hardened. He ripped the dish towel off of his shoulder and stalked out of the kitchen to the door. Tim called after him and Barbara took Damian again. “Go," she told him softly. Tim jumped to his feet. 

He could hear Bruce talking before he got to the door, his voice low and full of malice. “What are you doing here? Haven’t you done enough to hurt him by now?” His father said something, just a grumble through the half opened door, but Tim could tell it was really him. It was his voice and his chest tightened. 

He walked up behind Bruce and grabbed his elbow. Bruce stiffened and looked down at him with a frown but moved reluctantly when Tim nodded at him. Tim stepped in front of his husband, squeezing through the door out into the hallway. His father looked at him, standing a few feet back from the door. He looked different. Thinner with more wrinkles. His brown hair had gone almost completely grey and he seemed to curl in on himself slightly making himself look smaller than he was. Even his eyes, still the same brown they always were, looked different. Softer, the joke he always had laying just underneath was gone and they just looked… sad. 

“Hi Tim,” he said in a quiet voice. He felt his chest tighten again and watched silently as his father shifted back on his feet. “You look good, kid.” 

Bruce’s hand gripping his shoulder shook him out of his shock enough for him to talk. “Dad… I thought you were in jail.” 

“I was.” He nodded. “Got let out on parole. Good behavior.” He half smiled but it went away quickly. He watched his father’s eyes dart up to Bruce and he pursed his lips. “Do you think we could talk alone for a-” 

“Anything you have to say, you can say it in front of me,” Bruce told him. Jack looked at Tim but he didn’t move or say anything to make Bruce back down. 

“Right.” He sighed. “I deserve that.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded envelope, holding it in front of him before he managed to look at Tim again. “I know that I haven’t always been there for you, Tim. But I’m trying to get clean now. You know, working the steps. When you get to step 8 you are supposed to write down all of the people that you’ve done wrong too. And um, mine was pretty long.” He cleared his throat. “But you were… well, Timmy you were most of the list. I know I haven’t been a good father to you. And I would love a chance to make it up to you. To make amends.” He held out the envelope and Tim stared at it for a minute before he took it from him. “My number is in there," his father told him. "I have a new place downtown with a few guys from my group. I know you probably won’t want to, but it’s there if you… if you want it.” He offered Tim a tight smile again and for a second, Tim thought that he would try to hug him. But he didn’t. He just waved and turned down the hall to the elevator. 

"Everything okay?" Jason asked when they stepped back in. 

"Fine," Bruce replied and walked back into the kitchen. Barbara was holding Damian as she stood just inside the room. He wanted to take him, but their dinner was burning on the stove. He pushed it off and stirred the sauce. It would be fine. 

"I can finish that," Barbara said. He turned and took Damian with a nod. He looked down at his grouchy face and couldn't imagine ever hurting him. If Jack had a list of people he had wronged, Bruce had a list of people who he hated. The Drakes were on that list a few times. Tim would frown at him, but even after Janet died he still didn't feel like he could let go of the resentment. Having Jack show up, unannounced and asking for forgiveness, he shook his head. Damian frowned up at him. It was different, one that looked close to his 'you woke me up' frown. He rubbed his hair and rocked as he watched Barbara as she plated the food. 

"Dinner is ready," he said. The group in the living room looked over to him. Tim looked fine, but he could see the anger in Stephanie's eyes. She would be the person he called if he ever snapped. She'd help him bury the body and would probably complain that he hadn't invited her. Dick dragged Tim into the kitchen. 

Stephanie handed Bruce the letter as she passed. "Maybe you should put this away." Bruce looked down at the envelope and nodded. He wanted to throw it in the trash or maybe toss it into the fireplace, but he walked into their bedroom and shoved it at the bottom of the antique jewelry box his mother had given them when they'd told her they bought the building. His cufflinks and a couple watches sat on top. 

Damian whined and he shifted him. "Is it nap time?" he asked and walked him over to the crib that they had in their bedroom. He set him down and Damian's eyes closed almost instantly. He pat his chest for a few minutes to make sure he was really down. "I don't know why your Daddy complains," he whispered to him before backing out of the room. He turned up the baby monitor as he sat down at the table between Tim and Dick. He rubbed Tim's leg and got a squeeze back. Harper babbled from Jason's lap as they talked about one of Stephanie's coworkers. 

When everyone had left and they were alone he hugged Tim as he watched Damian sleep. "What are you thinking?" 

"He's so small," Tim said. He kissed his shoulder as he leaned to look down at him. He let the quiet stretch. He knew that if Tim was going to tell him what he was worrying about that he needed time. Damian shifted, his hand slipped out of the blanket. Tim leaned forward and tucked it back in carefully. 

"What if he's right?" Tim whispered. Then he turned and looked up at him. "What if I'm right? What if in ten years from now I'm exactly like him and Damian hates me?" 

He pulled Tim away from the crib and sat down on the bed. Tim slid into his lap and looked at him. "He won't." Tim frowned at him. "Because it's impossible not to love you. You know that right?" Tim rolled his eyes. "It is. And you love him. I know that. I know that you'll always love him. It's why I love you. I know you're going to be an amazing dad. You already are." 

"It's been a week."

"And you're already amazing." 

"You're ridiculous. The lack of sleep has ruined your mind."

He kissed Tim and laid down, tugging him down with him. Damian woke up a few minutes later and Tim sighed as he got up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bruce actually getting to hold a baby Damian will forever destroy me. So here it is in this.
> 
> -DNA


	4. Chapter 4

Bruce looked at Tim feeding Damian and didn't want to leave. He'd taken his vacation as soon as they'd left the hospital, but his time was up. He knew that Tim was nervous, but he didn't want to ask if he was okay. He didn't want Tim to think that he didn't trust him or make him any more nervous. 

"I'll be home around six. Are you sure you don't want me to come home for lunch?" 

"You wouldn't leave," Tim replied. He couldn't deny it. As he leaned down and kissed Tim and brushed Damian's fist he already wished he could stay for another week. 

-

The weeks passed. He pushed his shifts back later in the hopes of sleeping a little more, but it failed. He stopped counting the amount of times that Tim pushed him back down when Damian woke up in the middle of the night even though he was supposed to be the one to get him. No matter how late he got home there was always a plate of food ready for him. He tried telling Tim he didn't have to, and had offered to pick up take out on his way home, but every time Tim said that he had already started. 

He walked in and saw Tim asleep on the couch. Damian was in his carrier next to him. He waved at him with a smile and Damian hiccuped at him. He picked Damian up out of the carrier and let Tim sleep as he walked into the kitchen. The dishwasher was running and there was a single plate of food sitting in the microwave when he opened it. 

"Do you want to eat with Daddy?" Damian didn't respond, just kept staring at him. Stephanie said it was creepy that he just stared all the time. Bruce was pretty sure that she had just freaked herself out with the devil baby thing. Because he swore that he was listening to them. Tim had told him that he was only a month old and barely even recognized them with a tired laugh when he told him that. He ate his dinner and rinsed off the plate. Bruce realized as he turned off the water that he hadn't done dishes since he'd gone back to work. The dishes had always been _his._ Tim hated doing the dishes. He had complained endlessly about soggy food until Bruce finally made the deal that if Tim started their laundry that he would do dishes. He was terrible at remembering to put their clothes in the washer. Half of the time their hamper was overflowing if it was his week. 

"Bruce?" Tim shouted, sounding slightly panicked. He walked out into the living room. He watched him relax as he walked out and Tim saw Damian in his arms. "Why didn't you wake me up?" 

"You looked like you needed to sleep," he said and kissed him as he sat down. "Dinner was great." 

"Thanks," Tim sighed as he leaned against him. Damian made a gurgling noise. He smiled and finger walked up his stomach while making the noise back at him. Damian looked delighted as he stared at them. 

Tim watched Damian coo at Bruce and felt a sick swirl of jealousy in his stomach. Damian never cooed at him like that. When he wasn't crying he was screaming at Tim. It didn't matter if he was angry or happy or sad-- everything was a scream that Tim didn't know the answer to. "You okay?" Tim blinked up at Bruce, so tired that he had zoned out while wondering if he was the worst father _and_ husband on the face of the earth. 

"What, no. I'm fine," Tim insisted, shaking his head. "Just still half asleep." He forced a smile and leaned over Damian to kiss him, but that only made Damian shout and push Tim back. He grabbed a fist full of Tim's shirt and pushed him with the other as he shouted again and Tim sighed heavily. 

"Why don't you go get in bed?" Bruce offered with an easy expression. Because he was perfect and a real adult. Bruce could handle anything while Tim had graduated college and still could not figure out how to correctly load a dishwasher. And Tim knew that Bruce meant it and he wouldn't mind if Tim went to be and let him take care of everything for a little while. But it didn't seem fair. 

Bruce was the CEO and President of Wayne Enterprises. He worked almost every day, he was constantly taking calls for very important people and changing the world, and being a much better husband than Tim deserved and he always made it seem so _easy_ . Tim wasn't going to put _another_ burden on him just because being a father was hard. 

"I just need a shower," Tim told him and smiled at Damian even when he shouted at him. "I'll only be ten minutes."

"Take your time," Bruce told Tim easily, carrying Damian back into the living room. Tim watched them go before he turned back to their bedroom. 

He showered quickly, changing into a pair of lounge pants and black sweater. Damian was dozing in Bruce's arms when he came back, leaning in the doorway for a moment to watch them. Bruce didn't notice until Tim let out a low whistle and he smirked over at him. "Have I told you lately just how handsome you look with a baby?" He muttered softly as Damian's breath shifted into a heavy sleep. 

Bruce let out a low rumbling laugh, the one that he kept inside and that Tim always wanted to dig out of him. "I think Selina told me once that a baby is the ultimate accessory." 

"She isn't wrong," Tim muttered as he walked over to him and crawled up onto the couch, tucking easily into Bruce's side. Bruce wrapped his arm around him and they finished watching the sitcom that Bruce loved before Damian startled back awake with a vengeance. Tim took him and told Bruce he would get him settled down so that he could relax. He looked like he wanted to argue, but when Tim kissed him he relaxed and let Damian go. 

Damian wailed while Tim took his bottle out of the warmer and carried him back to the nursery. He settled with him in the rocker and as soon as he got the bottle in his mouth Damian settled. He blinked up at Tim with his big blue eyes so intense and perfect he could have convinced himself that he was all Bruce. He was just so perfect. Even though he spent most of his time yelling at Tim for what he was doing wrong, he could see in his perfect big eyes that he loved him. Right? Tim sighed and hummed at him and Damian's eyes started to drift shut. He let go of the bottle and Tim set it on the dresser as he changed him and got Damian into his PJ's. He went down so easily that Tim couldn't move away from his crib. He stood there just watching him wondering how it was possible for anyone to have ever been that small until Bruce cleared his throat by the door and crooked his finger at Tim. 

He grabbed the monitor and tiptoed into Bruce's arms. Tim bit his lip as Bruce pulled the door very slowly shut. They waited a moment, watching the monitor to see if Damian would fuss. When he didn't move, Bruce pulled Tim off of the floor and carried him back to the kitchen counter. 

Tim pushed the baby monitor down the counter so that he could still see it but wouldn't be distracted by it. His eyes fluttered shut when Bruce kissed him, scooping the breath out of his mouth with his tongue. He chased him forward when Bruce pulled back and chuckled into his jaw. "I miss having you at work," he muttered softly into his skin. 

Tim smirked as the electric touch of Bruce's fingers bit at his skin. "You miss how well organized and timely my weekly reports were?" He teased, laugh cutting off when Bruce bit him. "Or was in the long l-lunches." He stuttered the last word when he bit back his groan. 

"I miss your name popping up in my emails," Bruce told him so simply that he almost would have thought he was joking. "Without it I feel like I'm being deprived of a handful of smiles a day. What?" He asked when Tim pulled back on his hair and made Bruce look up at him. 

He held Bruce's face in his hands and kissed him with everything he had. "I need you to fuck the shit out of me, okay?" 

"Right now?" Bruce breathed, his eyes already glazing over in lust. Tim nodded and Bruce didn't waste any time pulling Tim out of his sweats. Tim sucked on Bruce's fingers as he pulled off his tie, pulling Bruce's shirt out of his slacks before he yanked out his belt and popped them open. Bruce was already rock hard before Tim had even touched him. Tim bit on Bruce's fingers and he hissed before he pulled Tim off the counter and flipped him over so his stomach was pressed into it. It was a tall counter, tall enough that Tim's toes barely touched the floor. 

He couldn't help the nose that punched out of him when Bruce's spit slicked finger pressed at him. He slammed his hand into his mouth and bit at his palm to keep from moaning as it slipped into him. It had been so long, so long that the stretch made him sore in a mad way. A way that he knew he would feel it the next day and he pushed back into it before Bruce caught his waist. "You have to let me take care of you," Bruce whispered into his shoulder. 

"No, please." He panted. "I can take it baby. Please," he begged and pushed back again. He looked back over his shoulder at Bruce, he could see the need in his eyes and how badly he wanted to listen to Tim. He pushed in another finger. " _Please_ baby," Tim begged him, barely able to keep his voice down. "Don't you want me?" He breathed with a flutter of his eyelashes and he knew that Bruce had been undone. 

Bruce slid against his ass, the heat of him on Tim's back making him go crazy. He pressed into Tim slowly filling him until he couldn't take a breath without feeling Bruce at his stomach. "God I love you," he breathed as Bruce pulled out of him just as slowly and- 

Damian started sniffling. Both of their eyes shot over to the baby monitor and waited holding their breath until tiny little lungs started screaming. Tim slid off the counter feeling like _he_ might start crying at any minute. He pulled his sweats back up and turned around to Bruce. He kissed him hard. Once, twice and then one more time before he bit his lip and went to go sooth the baby back to sleep. 

Bruce sighed and grabbed his tie. Tim was walking back and forth in their room as Damian cried. He looked apologetic. Bruce shook it off, but the frustration was under his skin and he needed to get it out. He walked into their bathroom and turned on the shower as he stripped. The water was hot as he stepped in. He let it soak into him before he took his still uncomfortably hard dick in his hand. He closed his eyes and thought about finishing what they'd started in the kitchen, Tim's toes sliding over the edge of the tile. His moans echoing off the stone. He would have shown Tim how much he wanted him, how much he'd missed him. He'd come first, the pull too much for him. He'd spin him around, push him back onto the counter and swallow him down. His thumbs pushing into the red marks the edge of the counter had left on Tim's hips. He'd take him down, swallow everything Tim had to offer. He bit his lip as he came. He stared at it washing down the drain. Then Bruce would carry him to bed, ignoring the insistence that he could walk. Because Tim was always a little boneless after coming. They'd kiss until they fell asleep. 

When he got out of the shower Tim had gotten Damian back to sleep, but he was asleep too. Bruce got him under the covers and pushed his face against his shirt so he could breathe him in. He took Damian when he started crying an hour before Bruce's alarm would have gone off anyway. Tim had tried to pull him back into bed while getting up himself, but Bruce had slipped free and kissed him until he stayed. 

He changed him, got his bottle ready, and started the coffeemaker. He read a news article while Damian finished his bottle. Damian fussed for a moment, but Bruce rocked him while he put the dishes away and poured two cups of coffee. He made his and added the cinnamon creamer Tim had been obsessed with the last few weeks to the other. He pushed open the bedroom door and Tim was sitting up in bed reading on his phone like he knew he would be. He held out the coffee cups and put Damian back in his crib before sitting down with him. Tim smiled as he took his first sip.

"You really are perfect. You know that?" 

"Just taking care of my husband." He leaned forward and caught a kiss. He could taste the cinnamon on Tim's lips. His phone chimed with his alarm. He silenced it and pushed off the bed. Tim watched him move around the room as he got ready for work. 

"The blue tie," Tim said as he picked Damian up when he started to whine. He settled back on the bed with him. Damian was shifting fitfully in Tim's arms as they both watched him tie his tie in the mirror. He sat down next to Tim. He let Damian catch his finger and watched him play with it before sucking on it. 

"I am going to the gym with Jason tonight. We'll probably grab food. Do you want me to bring dinner home?" 

"No," Tim said with a shake of his head. "If you're with Jason then Steph will probably show up unannounced like she always does." 

"Alright. I love you." Tim's lips followed his when he pulled away. "And I loved you too," he told Damian and kissed him too. He got a disgruntled look for his troubles. He scoffed. He pulled the door shut and Tim was still looking at him, he looked sad for a moment before meeting Bruce's eyes and smiling. 

-

They were in mile five when Jason pulled on his earphone cord. He popped it out and tucked it in the neck of his shirt. "How's everything going?"

"I don't think I've ever been so tired," Bruce said. 

Jason chuckled. "Yeah. That hasn't gotten any better. But Tim's doing okay?" 

"Yeah. You know how quiet Damian is." 

"Lucky. Harper sounds like a siren when she cries. And of course her loudest screams are at 3am." They ran in silence for a mile. Bruce thought back to the night before. 

"You guys having sex?" 

"No," Jason groaned. "Steph's still all weird about her body. Note, if you ever hear a woman describe her stomach as a deflated balloon, don't laugh. She was not joking and she didn't let me sleep in our bed for a week." Jason hit his cool down as they hit eight miles. "You guys aren't having that problem though." 

"Eh," he said and shrugged. "I've had to work late almost every night since I've been back. I've picked up a few of Luke's responsibilities since he took a lot of Tim's." 

"Then why are you here with me when you could be at home fucking your husband?" Jason stared at him. "Seriously. Do it for me." 

"I'll make sure to tell Tim that," Bruce said with a scoff and moved over to the weights. 

"Don't laugh. You should have taken this time when you had it. The next thing you know it'll be 6 months." Jason let his head fall over the edge of the bench with a groan. "I haven't had sex in 6 months." He pulled his head back up to look at Bruce. "And I can't even take care of it myself cause she can sense that shit and gets all weepy that I'm thinking of other women, like I'm not just thinking about her." Jason shifted and got under the weights. "Can't tell her that either cause she doesn't believe me." As he watched Jason's reps he wondered how they could be having a completely different experience. They switched and let the conversation drift to cute things Harper and Damian had done. 

As they did their cool down on the bikes Jason looked over to him. "Don't tell Tim I was complaining about Steph. Because I'm not really. She's doing so much at home and dealing with all this change and figuring out parenthood for the both of us. I know that I get mostly the fun parts, the happy Harper." Jason smiled though he looked tired. "I just miss her." 

"I won't," he promised. Jason sighed and leaned back. 

When he got home from the gym, Tim was already asleep in their bedroom. Damian was conked out with his stuffed cow. He watched him for a while and wondered if he got the good side too. 

"You're warm," Tim hummed and pressed back against him when he crawled up behind him after showering. 

Bruce kissed his neck and Tim sighed and shifted his head to give him more room. He sucked on his neck and felt Tim push back against him. He pulled his ass up into the curve of his hips and Tim let out a gasp. He let Tim squirm against him as he continued kissing his neck and shoulder. He pulled the front of Tim's pants down. Tim muffled his moan a moment too late and Damian made a small noise. Bruce froze. Tim kept shifting, his sleepy mind unaware of the mine he was standing on. Damian quieted down and Bruce stroked Tim. He pushed Tim's pants the rest of the way down and freed himself. He slid between Tim's legs. Tim pushed his legs tighter together and Bruce bit his shoulder. He stroked as he rutted against Tim. He got sleepy moans and pleas. Tim came with a short cry and Bruce buried his face in Tim's back as he came. 

Bruce sighed as he turned off the shower. Tim was changing Damian when he walked out of the bathroom. He handed him the dirty diaper and told him to add diapers to the grocery list while he was out there. Bruce added it to the list and sighed. They could go on Saturday. 

-

Bruce stared at his inbox. It had been four months since he'd last gotten an email from Tim. He hadn't thought he would miss working together this much. But Tim being there had renewed his interest in his work. He'd had a new mission, and without Tim there work just didn't feel the same. 

"Emily, I'm taking an early day. I'll meet with everyone tomorrow." 

"Okay. Tell Tim we miss him and he should come by." 

"I will," Bruce told her as he passed her desk. "Let me know if there are any issues rescheduling." 

"You know that I am magic. There are no issues I can't beat." 

Bruce laughed as he turned the corner. 

Bruce stopped at Tim's favorite take out restaurant and picked up his favorite food. He had a bouquet of red carnations under his arm as he struggled with the elevator door. He cursed under his breath. He hated this thing. He should have let Tim convince him to replace it. The gate finally closed and he rode up thinking about Tim. He could hear Damian crying through the door. He frowned and pushed it open. Damian's stroller was next to the door. Groceries were spread out on the counter like Tim had been halfway through putting them away. The dishes from their breakfast this morning were still on the counter. He walked around the corner to where Damian's cries were coming from and was surprised to see toys strewn all over the floor, their laundry piled on the couch, and Damian wailing from his blanket in the middle of the floor. Tim was sitting next to it, curled in on himself. He could hear him too now. He could see the shaking of his shoulders as he cried. Bruce set the flowers down on the hall table and stepped into the room. Damian saw him and his cries stopped. Tim made a high noise and his head turned to look at Damian. 

"Tim?" 

Tim's head spun around and he saw the panic in his tear filled eyes. Tim looked over to the couch and then around himself. "I'm sorry," Tim cried and folded back in on himself. Bruce sat down next to him. Tim looked up and his eyes were wet and wide and so scared. Bruce didn't think he'd ever seen him look at him like that. 

"Are you okay?" he asked helplessly as he reached out. 

"No," Tim whined. "I'm not. I haven't been. I'm not meant for this. Any of this." Tim waved around the room and Bruce's hand dropped down. Damian cried and Tim covered his ears. A pit opened in Bruce's stomach. One that had a single board of plywood over the top if it. 

"Do you not want kids?" 

"I didn't say that," Tim replied. He looked over to Bruce, his eyes still hurt and scared. 

"But you're not denying it." Every conversation they'd had about kids had ended with a later, in a while, not now. Bruce had been surprised when Tim had finally agreed. Had he just pushed too hard, wore him down when it wasn't something that Tim wanted?

"Do you really think I would have gone through all of that testing six fucking times if I didn't want to have kids with you?" Tim asked, his voice losing the hurt and gaining some sharpness. 

"Do you want them or is it only because I do?" He looked at Tim, waiting for the answer. 

"How could you ask me that?" Tim's voice was watery and his face crumbled. "I love Damian. Of course I want him. I just--it's just so f-fucking hard, B."

"Then let me help you," Bruce whispered and pulled him into a hug. Tim clung to him and he felt him crying again "Tell me what you want. What you really want?" 

"I want..." Tim wiped his face on his shirt and looked up at him. "I want everyone to stop giving me parenting advice." He sighed. "And I want everyone to stop looking at me like they are sorry because Damian likes you more than me."

"What are you talking about?"

"He screams all day, B. And I don't know what I'm doing wrong. He gets mad when I feed him and when I play with him and when I talk to him. And I've read all of the books. I've listened to podcasts. I even called his pediatrician. Because whenever you come home he is so happy to see you. And I don't know if it's because I'm doing something wrong or if... it's just me." 

Bruce felt like the plywood had been ripped out from under him. He didn't know what to say. He looked around the room and realized he'd never seen this before because Tim had been working himself to this point so that he wouldn't. He thought they were partners, they always had been, they shared everything. But he hadn't noticed how much more Tim was carrying. 

"I brought you lunch," he said. He didn't know what else to say. He got up and grabbed the bag from the kitchen. He picked up the flowers too. Tim was standing when he walked back in the room. "Go eat, then sleep. I'll take care of things today." 

"What? No." 

"Tim," he caught his chin and kissed him. "Please. Just let me do this. I failed you and I need to make it up to you." 

"You didn't-" 

"I didn't see any of this, babe. Go, rest." 

Tim took the bag and hugged the flowers to his chest. He didn't look like he wanted to, but he took them to the bedroom. Bruce got Damian in his carrier and moved to the kitchen. He finished putting the groceries away. He started the dishwater and cleaned the kitchen. He fed Damian when he started crying again. He put the stroller away and cleaned the entryway. Then he set Damian back under his mobile and started folding their clothes. 

Tim joined them as Bruce laid with Damian on the floor. He had pouted a few times, but settled easily enough. Bruce looked over to Tim as he sat on the couch. 

"You don't want to stay at home with him do you?" 

Tim looked startled, but after a moment he shook his head. "I miss working." 

"Then you should go back to work. I'll stay with Damian." 

"What? B, I can't. You're more important. You're the CEO." 

"I'm not though. You could do my job, probably better than me. You already know what I do, what's important to the company. I can step back. Like my dad did. I'll still be there in name and be here if you need help. But you'll take over." 

Tim looked speechless. Then with a self deprecating laugh, "I can't even manage a baby."

"I'm going to ignore that," he said. Tim frowned at him. "I don't have the passion you do. I love our company, but when I'm not there, I don't miss it. You do." 

-

Bruce wouldn’t take no for an answer. Every time that Tim refused, he just told Tim to think about it a little longer or give it another day and they could talk about it in the morning. 

And Tim did think about it. He thought about it a lot. To the point that he was having strange work dreams where there was always another contract under the one he had already signed and if he did one wrong, the entire company would go under. But Bruce just told him that was a good sign. That if he wanted them to stop, all he had to do was go back to work. That he would be doing Bruce a favor by being CEO of the company-- of Bruce’s family’s company. 

But they didn’t seem to think that the idea was all that crazy or radical. Tim had thought that Thomas would have a few objections, but when Bruce brought it up casually that Sunday after breakfast at the manor he smiled. “I think that’s a great idea. When were you planning to make the change?” 

“That’s the question.” Bruce sighed and smiled when Damian cooed from Martha’s lap, just as taken with his grandmother as everyone else was. “If I’m home with Damian then someone would need to be there for the first month. Help with the transition. I was looking at a few nanny services-”

“Nonsense,” Martha waved it off but she was still smiling at the baby, taking in her Damian voice. “Your grandfather ran that company for twenty five years," she told Damian who watched her wide eyed like he actually knew what she was saying. “He can show your daddy anything he needs to know. Yes he can!” she said and booped Damian’s nose making him actually laugh. If it was still the beginning of that week Tim might have started crying at the sound of it, but now it just made his chest tighten. 

Bruce smiled and stretched his arm across the back of the couch so that Tim could lean into his side. “Is that something you’d be interested in, Dad?” 

Thomas grinned. “Teaching business to my favorite son?” 

“Thomas,” Martha chided.

“ _-in law_ ,” he corrected but winked at Tim after he said it, making Tim smile despite the erratic anxiety coursing through him at the thought that this could all actually be happening. “We can start tomorrow.” 

“The Louises are in town this week, honey.” Martha chimed with her baby voice once again. 

Thomas made a face that clearly said he had hoped that his wife would forget that so that he could escape the social effort of company, but nodded. “Then next week.” 

It only took three phone calls for a new contract to be faxed to their home office. They sat at the desk, Tim in Bruce’s lap as they listened to the family lawyer go over the finer things with them on speaker phone. When he was finished Bruce signed and initialled all of the marked areas and handed the pen over to Tim like it was the easiest thing in the world. 

“Are you sure?” Tim asked him again. For the hundredth time that week and maybe even that day. “It’s your family’s company-”

“ _Our_ family’s company," Bruce corrected him. He held onto the back of Tim’s neck to make him look Bruce in the eye. “Baby, I’ve never been more sure of anything. You are brilliant and strong willed and inspiring. People will _want_ to be led by you.” Tim looked down and Bruce pulled his chin up. “I love our company, but I took this job so that my father didn’t have to do it. The reason I’m not worried about it is because if something happened to where I was forced out, I know that yours are the only hands I would want WE to be in. I’m not worried. My father isn’t worried. And you aren’t going into this by yourself.” He held up the pen again and after a moment Tim took it. 

He had to hold his breath as he signed his name to make sure that he didn’t ruin the contract and then it was just… done. Tim had expected for a huge weight to slide onto his shoulders, to feel like he had just inherited the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people. But instead he felt… not lighter exactly. But more comfortable. Like instead of adding on more weight, it took what Tim had already been carrying and repositioned it to that he had more control. So that he could breathe. 

He stared at it. And without really thinking about why, he picked it up to see if there was a hidden paper underneath. But there wasn’t. It really was done. Bruce kissed his cheek and pulled him out of his head and back to the lap he was in and the arms around him. “So what should we make for dinner?” 

-

It felt strange being woken up by an alarm and not a crying baby the next Monday. He silenced it and climbed out of bed going through his morning routine like he had never stopped doing it in the first place. He showered, brushed his teeth and combed back his hair before he walked into the closet and tried to pick out a suit. He ended up in the navy one that Bruce liked, and his lucky red tie that he had worn to every job interview he had ever had. Bruce smiled when Tim walked into the kitchen and he saw it. “You know you already got the job, right?” he asked and handed Tim a travel cup of coffee. 

“I just feel like a little luck won’t hurt anything,” Tim muttered, pulling at his tie self consciously. “Just because we are married now doesn’t erase the fact that I’m a Drake. Half of the staff is going to expect me to run the company straight into the ground.”

“Then hire new staff,” Bruce told him easily, smirking at Tim’s surprise. 

He didn’t know what to say. His stomach flipped around as he looked at Bruce and Damian settled sleepily on his hip. It felt wrong to be leaving them but at the same time it felt like exactly the right thing to do. So he pushed up onto his toes and kissed Bruce hard. “I love you,” he told him softly. Bruce smiled and kissed Tim’s cheek three times in response. Tim kissed Damian too, his bright little eyes squinting in confusion as he tried to comprehend what was happening. “And I love you,” he told Damian. He pulled on Tim’s ear as he stepped away and squawked until he gave him another kiss. 

Bruce laughed and stole another as well. “I’m here if you need me. Have a good first day, Mr. Wayne.” 

Bruce looked down at Damian as the door shut. It hit him all at once that he had not spent any time by himself with Damian since they'd brought him home. Sure he'd had him when Tim was asleep or was on the phone, but Tim had always been there too. Damian let out a yawn and dropped his head on his chest dramatically. 

"We'll be fine," he told him, and himself. 

He walked into the living room and sat down. Damian stayed tucked in his arms and blinked at the TV when he turned it on and flipped through the channels until he found something. Damian slept for a while longer. He scrolled through the list that Tim had given him. They'd agreed to make a basic walkthrough of their days. His has read:

  * **8 AM - 9 AM** Check and respond to emails. Go over the day's schedule with Emily. 
  * **9 AM - 11 AM** Meetings with suppliers (Daydream about lunches with Tim.) 
  * **11 AM - 12 PM** Lunch
  * **12 PM - 3 PM** meetings and reports (Think about Tim at least once every hour to deal with the boredom.) 
  * **4 PM - 5** **PM** Mondays and Wednesdays - Meeting with Selina (Try not to think about Tim. She can tell and gets angry.) 
  * **4 PM - 5 PM** Tuesdays and Thursdays - Meeting with Department heads. 
  * **5 PM** Check and respond to emails. Complete any time sensitive items. 



Tim hadn't thought the notes on his were very funny. Bruce went through the morning tasks and Damian didn't seem bothered by any of it. He cooed at him while Bruce washed the dishes from their breakfast and made sure that he refilled the tray of baby food for Damian. They played peekaboo for a while. Everything was calm, until they finished their lunch. Damian looked around as they walked back into the living room. He looked at him with a strange expression that might have been suspicion if it wasn't coming from a toddler. 

They played for a while but every few minutes Damian would yell and reach for the hall. A few hours later Damian was sobbing and not even his cow made it any better. Bruce walked around the apartment rocking him trying to figure out what he could possibly want, but each empty room had him crying harder. He had cried himself to sleep when Bruce's phone chimed to remind him to start dinner. He watched him and wiped the stream of tears off his face before heading out to the kitchen. 

Tim walked in the door just as he pulled the lasagna out of the oven. Damian immediately burst into tears. His hands clenching and unclenching as he wailed. Bruce stared at his son who had been happily bopping the toy piano only seconds before in disbelief. Damian leaned in his highchair and reached for Tim who was still trying to get out of his jacket and shoes. 

Bruce set the pan down and picked Damian up. He stopped screaming, but still didn't look happy. That was until Tim got close enough to kiss him hello. 

"He missed you," Bruce said as the realization hit him. Tim looked at Damian and smiled. 

"Did you miss me?" Tim asked. Damian shrieked and grabbed for him again. Bruce let Tim take him and watched the two of them. Tim smiling brightly as Damian cooed and smiled at him. 

"How was work?" 

"It was good," Tim replied. "I'm exhausted." 

"You can take a nap if you want," Bruce offered as he plated the lasagna. 

"No, I want to hear about _your_ day." 

"Other than Damian realizing that you weren't here around lunch it's been pretty much exactly the list you gave me." 

"Did you think about me at least once an hour?" 

"Every half hour," he replied as he moved around Tim to sit down next to him. Tim smiled as he kissed his cheek. 

"I almost sent you an email at lunch," Tim told him as he took his first bite. "I missed him." Damian was happily mouthing at Tim's tie. "And you. But I've never missed him before." 

They talked for the rest of dinner about work and Damian. Even though Tim had said he didn't need a nap they'd ended up going to bed before nine. Tim didn't even make it through the first round of Chopped. 

The next day Damian noticed earlier and was even more upset at the absence of the correct dad. Or at least that was what Bruce was convinced those cries meant. Bruce texted Tim a picture of the two of them at lunch. Damian's face was covered in swipes of carrot because he was refusing to eat and Bruce had a splat on his forehead that dripped down his cheek from Damian hitting the spoon. Tim just sent him crying laughing emojis. He chuckled and hoped that helped ease the worry Tim had been trying to hide the night before. 

By the end of the week he thought he had the routine down. The next week brought more of the same, though Damian didn't cry as much that Tim was gone. He still immediately wanted Tim as soon as he walked in the door. Bruce was glad for that even though his ears were suffering from the shouts because Tim's face brightened every single time. 

-

"Tim."

"Hm?"

"Tim," he urged again and pushed his nose into his hair. 

"My alarm hasn't gone off yet," Tim whined. Bruce rubbed down his chest and stomach. Tim pushed back against him and he kissed his neck. "He'll wake up," Tim warned. Bruce hummed and slid his hand into his boxers. 

"Not if you're quiet." 

Tim bit his lip as he rocked into his hand, and when he couldn't hold back he pulled Bruce closer and shoved their mouths together as he came. Tim let out a sigh and rolled so he was facing him. He reached for Bruce, but they had run out of time. Damian started crying. "I get first shower," Bruce said with a glance down. Tim looked down and swallowed. He looked like he was about to dive mouth first into his lap, but Damian's cries got louder. He stopped in the doorway to the bathroom. "Oh. Happy one month back at work, babe," he said and smiled before slipping in. 

"We should go out to dinner today," Tim said when he got out of the shower. "Maybe that barstool diner around the corner? They have outdoor seating." 

"Okay," he said and traded off in holding the bottle so Tim could go get ready for work. "Do you want to meet us there?" he asked when Tim came back in his suit that Bruce wanted to peel him right back out of. 

"Sure," Tim said. "I'll text you when I'm leaving work." 

"We'll be ready," he said and leaned back to accept his kiss. Tim hummed and stole a few more before kissing Damian and grabbing his bag. "Have a good day." 

The day flew by. He didn't know how he had thought he'd never fill the time. It felt like he'd blinked after sending their daily lunchtime selfie and it was already time to get ready. Damian was sitting propped up against their pillows. He hated the pillow he'd gotten him the week before. He changed shirts and spread his arms wide. Damian followed the movement of his arms. 

"What do you think about this one?" 

"Bah!" Damian babbled. 

"No. I don't think this is it either. Do you think the blue?" He held up the thick knit sweater and Damian kicked and fell over. He crawled onto the bed and helped him sit back up. "You like the blue then?" He got dressed, did his hair and got Damian changed. He straightened the bow tie sewed to the top of the onesie and laughed. 

Damian kept up his running commentary of their walk to the diner. He had been babbling nearly non-stop the last couple days. Tim was already at the diner when they rounded the corner. Bruce only got a couple feet before Damian's excited noises alerted Tim of their arrival. He looked tense, but smiled nonetheless. Bruce accepted the kiss. Tim chuckled when he picked Damian up and toyed with the bow tie. 

"You look very handsome today," he told him. "You both do." Bruce stood a little straighter under the appraising look Tim gave him. They ordered and ate on the patio. Damian happily bouncing in Bruce's lap as Tim talked about his day. Bruce knew that he was avoiding something. He could see it every few sentences. Him second guessing what he was about to say. It wasn't until they were walking home that Tim took his hand and leaned against him. 

"Some reporter posted an article about me," Tim said. "Selina said it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I knew that it was coming, but I thought I'd make it more than a month before someone decided they wanted to remind the world how much of a failure my family is." 

"Who was it?" 

"Some business journal on the west coast," Tim mumbled. "Selina said they must be having a slow week. But she doesn't think it'll be long before someone in our sphere writes one too. Since topics get recycled so easily." 

"How are things with the board?" 

Tim sighed. "They are fine. I haven't really made any changes. Luke and I have been talking about a lot of things, but haven't started yet. I'm kind of afraid to now." 

"Don't be-" Bruce frowned when he saw a guy walk out of the alley next to their building and up the stairs to look in the front door. He pulled Tim a little closer as they approached. He saw the camera at his hip at the same time that the man saw them. He didn't really know what the man thought he was going to get. But he bumped the stroller, which set the flash off in his son's face, and Bruce didn't care. His hand balled in a fist as soon as Damian started crying. He threw the punch and heard the crack of plastic as the man howled and fell to the ground. Bruce took a few steps forward and saw the camera swing up. He could hear the whir of it taking pictures, and a small part of his mind knew he needed to stop, but he could feel his anger taking over. 

"Bruce," Tim said as he came down the stairs. Damian was inside, still crying. Bruce looked back at the man. He grabbed the camera out of his hand and threw it on the ground next to him. Tim reached for him. He turned and grabbed his wrist. 

"Let's go," he ground out. Tim yelped at the first step and Bruce was suddenly supporting his weight, by his grip on his wrist. He pulled him up until his feet were back under him and in the doors. He picked up Damian and rocked him as they walked into the lobby and around the corner where they couldn't be seen. They could get the stroller in the morning. He looked over and Tim was rubbing his wrist as he walked. "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" 

"I'm okay," Tim told him, shaking it off. His wrist ached, but barely. He looked at his husband and son, Damian still screaming and afraid and Bruce shaken. "Bruce, you're bleeding," Tim muttered and grabbed his hand, letting him shift Damian into his other arm before he pulled him to the elevator. 

Damian had settled by the time Tim unlocked their apartment and Tim took him while Bruce went to go wash off his hand. It was still bleeding when he came out of Damian’s room half an hour later and found Bruce fuming at the kitchen sink, letting water run over it, rubbing at his brow with his other hand. Tim turned the water off and pressed a paper towel into it, frowning when crimson came through immediately. “Maybe we should take you to the hospital…” he muttered. 

“It’ll stop.” Bruce grumbled unhappily. “Hands just bleed a lot. It doesn’t really hurt.” 

Tim pursed his lips and dragged Bruce with him through the kitchen to their bedroom. He pushed Bruce onto the bed and walked into their bathroom to find the first aid kit that they only bought after Martha had asked if they had one and looked terrified when they said no. He dug through all of the baby medicine until he found the alcohol swabs and liquid stitch and brought them back into the bedroom with him. Bruce didn’t say anything, but made a little face of discomfort as Tim cleaned the cut. Once the blood was cleared out it didn’t look so bad. He painted on the liquid stitch and blew on it until it was dry, eyes lit with a dark amusement when he saw a smile trying to pull at Bruce’s mouth. When it was dry, he popped a bandaid on it and gave it a quick kiss before he set his hand back in his lap and stood up. Bruce grabbed at his waist and pulled him in. 

“Best blowjob I’ve ever had," he cooed into his neck and a laugh punched out of Tim as he swatted his shoulder. 

Still he let Bruce pull him into his lap and pulled his tie loose, the adrenaline from earlier sparking again when he saw Bruce lick his lip. Tim leaned forward to catch his tongue. Bruce's hand came to rest on the back of his neck as he turned his head and let Tim in deeper. 

"We should call Selina," Bruce gasped after a moment. 

Tim shoved him back onto the bed and if Bruce had any more complaints they were lost to the assault of Tim's mouth. His heart hammered in his chest and he ground against the bulge in his jeans. "Selina can wait," he replied and ripped Bruce's pants open. Tim shoved himself down Bruce's body, not caring about how ungraceful he looked. He wanted to take his time, but it had been so long and Tim's mouth was watering. He sucked on the head of him until he had enough spit built up and swallowed Bruce's down. He had never quite been able to take Bruce all the way down but that didn't stop him from trying. He choked when he got about two thirds of the way down and Bruce moaned, grabbing Tim's hair to pull him back up to the tip. His mouth was open around it, his tongue sliding over the top and back as Bruce stared him down. 

Bruce's phone rang and he bit his lip when Selina's face lit up on the screen. He looked down at Tim almost like he was in pain when Tim bobbed on and off of him again.

"Answer it," Tim dared him and he saw a little sparkle of lust in his eyes. 

Bruce hit speaker on his phone and dropped it onto the bed before Tim sucked him down again as quietly as he could as Selina took over without waiting for a hello. "I just got a call saying someone saw you punch a photographer." Her voice was calm for the most part but Tim could hear the exhaustion and annoyance. Tim bobbed deep and caught the gag that wanted to come out of him making Bruce sit up on his elbows to watch. 

"Who called you?" Bruce asked, barely managing to keep his voice normal. 

"Does it matter?" Selina sighed taking the fact that Bruce didn't instantly deny it as a confession. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that he flashed a camera in my infant son's face and was waiting for us at our apartment building." He bit his lip again to hold in his groan when Tim gave him a hard suck and pulled off, pumping him hard in his fist. 

"Did you hurt him?" 

"Yes," Bruce told her, dragging Tim back into his lap and reaching over to the bedside table to pull out a bottle of lube. He didn't offer her any explanation. 

"Badly?" She continued like she was talking to a child. 

Tim slipped his pants off as quietly as he could and Bruce pushed him up onto his knees so he could get a fistful of his ass. Tim gasped and barely covered his mouth when Bruce asked a slick finger inside of him and back out, adding another one when he pushed back in. "I might have broken his nose." He told her, but his eyes were hot on Tim, watching as his pupils blew out with lust it felt like he'd been carrying for months, dying to be fucked senselessly for hours on end. He didn't know how long he would be able to play this game for. He had started it, but now he wanted it to be over so he could cry out Bruce's name when he added a third finger into him instead of folding silently into his shoulder. 

"Bruce…" She sighed again. "You can't lose your temper like that."

"He scared my son," Bruce told her firmly. "I would do it again. My family deserves as much privacy as we can get. And Damian isn't even a year old. I don't need his face plastered all over the internet," he said and added a fourth finger a little too forcefully, making Tim bite down on Bruce's neck to keep from shouting. Bruce kissed the side of his head in apology and moved more sweetly into him, stretching his fingers apart until Tim could feel the cool air brushing into him. 

"We could have a lawsuit." Bruce removed his fingers. Tim heard the wet slide of lube on his palm.

"Then I'll counter sue for trespassing." He pressed at Tim's entrance.

Selina sighed and they sat in a barely held together silence as Bruce slammed into Tim without warning. Bruce's hand jumped up to cover Tim's mouth, muffling the sound just enough for Selina's voice to cover it. "I'm calling Harvey. We are going to prepare a statement and have it emailed over. Try not to punch anyone else in the meantime," she grumbled and hung up. 

"Thank fuck." Bruce groaned and rolled them so that Tim's back was pressed into the bed and Bruce was leaning over him, palm still pressed into his mouth as he rammed into him again and again. Tim couldn't breath but he didn't care. He felt amazing. Like he could walk on water. Like he could never breath again as long as Bruce kept fucking him and would somehow stay alive. 

" _Bruthhe!"_ He groaned into Bruce's hand, grabbing as his wrists to try and pull it away. 

"You have to be quiet, baby," Bruce reminded him. "Damian."

Tim nodded and Bruce pulled his hand away, yanking Bruce down so that he could moan into his mouth. He was still in his sweater. His hair still so perfect and untouched and he looked like a fucking model above Tim. But he wasn't a model. He was Bruce. This was Tim's husband.

"I love you," he gasped when Bruce turned Tim onto his stomach and pushed back into him, the added friction to Tim's twitching dick and the depth of Bruce's almost too much for him. He grabbed at the mattress and Bruce laced his fingers with his. "I-- _huht_ ! love you. Holy _fu-uck!_ He gasped again and bit the pillow in front of him as Bruce moved faster and faster and he couldn't hold it in anymore. 

Tim felt limp and weightless when Bruce finally moved out of him and shifted off of the bed. He was surprised when his hand pulled at Tim's shoulder and made him get up with him. He followed Bruce into the bathroom. And pulled off the tie that was almost strangling him at this point and his shirt. Tim turned on the shower while Bruce finished undressing and pulled Bruce into the hot water with a devious grin. He was tired and most of the adrenaline had faded. But tomorrow would be Tim's first day at the office without Thomas and he didn't care how tired he was, he intended to celebrate. 

Tim was on his knees when Damian finally woke up, water almost run cold as it washed the cum off his face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late! I got off work and then got distracted by Among Us.
> 
> Let us know what you think?
> 
> -DNA


	5. Chapter 5

The media stayed quiet for a week and Tim was almost convinced whatever cover up that Selina and Harvey had done worked until the Saturday paper showed up at their front door. It wasn't the picture he expected. It was of him grimacing in pain up at Bruce whose hand was on his wrist as he pulled him into the building, The headline reading  _ trouble in paradise _ . 

He didn't bother reading the article as he walked back into the apartment, tucking it under his arm until he could throw it in the trash when Bruce was cooing at Damian. "Anything interesting in the paper?" He asked without looking away from the mess on their son's face. He was making funny faces at him to keep Damian distracted and Tim could have died from the amount of love he had for them. 

Tim smiled at him and turned on the coffee maker, kissing Bruce hard on the cheek, making Damian laugh at the noise. "Nope," he told him and tossed it away, grabbing Bruce's mug to refill it. 

-

Things settled down. He could still see people watching them when he went on his run with Damian. But none of them approached him. And Selina hadn't called again to lecture him so she must have been worried for no reason. Tim was cuddled against his chest as they watched TV on the floor with Damian laying in front of them. He checked his screen and pushed up. Bruce watched him walk out of the room to answer a call. He looked over to Damian who was drooling as he sucked on the corner of his blanket. 

"That's not good," he told him. Damian kicked his feet. He smiled and pat his stomach. Damian dropped the blanket and grabbed his hand. He wiggled his fingers and let Damian play with them as he watched the doorway. When Tim came back in he brought ice cream with him. Bruce got distracted by the face Damian made when Tim gave him a spoonful. It wasn't until he was falling asleep that he remembered he had meant to ask what the call had been. He could ask in the morning. 

Tim was already dressed when he woke up the next morning. When he wrapped around him at the sink he could smell the coffee. "I have to run, babe. I have a meeting. Have a good day." 

"You too," he said and yawned as Tim slipped out of the kitchen. He rubbed his stomach as he walked down the hall to check on Damian. He was still asleep. It was a miracle Bruce was not wasting. He got another hour of sleep before Damian woke up hungry and mad that his dad wasn't home. 

-

Stephanie walked in with Harper on her hip and a bag of McDonald's. Tim was laying on Bruce's stomach scrolling through Amazon for clothes for Damian. They both looked up. Stephanie put Harper down next to Damian and stopped in front of them. 

"Jason is waiting for you at the gym," she said. 

"I wasn't-" 

"I need some Tim time," she said. He blinked and sat up. 

"Okay," Bruce said and climbed to his feet. He shot Tim a look, but he looked just as surprised by the declaration. He kissed Tim and said goodbye to Damian before he headed out. 

Jason was lounging in the front of the gym when he walked in. He looked at him for a second before standing up. They started on the treadmill like they always did. Jason was quiet and he felt like something was wrong. He let it go for a few minutes. He still felt like he was on the wrong foot from earlier and this just made it worse. 

"Is everything okay with you and Steph?" he asked. It had only been a week since he'd last texted Jason, and things had been going fine then. Their epic dry spell had finally ended. 

"Maybe I should ask the same question," Jason replied and there it was again. The same tone that Stephanie had earlier. 

"With me and Tim?" he asked. Jason shot him a look. "It's taken some getting used to, but I think that it's been going well. Did Tim say something different?"

Jason turned off the treadmill and looked at him. Bruce did the same. Bruce shifted under his gaze. "Things are going well?" 

"Yes. Damian's still upset when he realizes Tim's left, but we've worked out a routine. I don't-" Bruce stopped. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" 

"It was really hard to believe," Jason said. "Steph didn't want to, but with everything laid out." He sounded angry. Bruce took a half step back when Jason looked up at him. "We've seen the bruises." 

"What  _ bruises?"  _ he asked making it sound as terrible as Jason had. "What are you talking about?" 

"They'll grant it. Even with a 98% match they'll have to dissolve it." 

Bruce froze. He looked at Jason and saw the anger so clearly directed at him. There were only two ways to dissolve a marriage. Death and- "You think I'm abusing Tim?" he asked as calmly as he could. "H-how could you think that?" 

Jason scoffed. "Half of Gotham thinks it."

"What?" 

"There has been a new article almost every day this week. Don't act so surprised. Someone was going to find out eventually." 

"It's not true," he hissed. "I don't know how you could - why did no one tell me?" he mumbled to himself as he searched his own name. Jason was right. Each article all had the same photo attached. As he looked at the picture, the pain on Tim's face and the anger on his own he could see why people believed it was true. The newest article must have been the one that was the final straw for Stephanie. It outlined every fight he'd been in. Every headline he'd made and every single time that it had disappeared. He sat down on the treadmill as he read. He had finished three before looking up at Jason. "You really believe this?" His voice cracked as he shook his phone at him. He gripped his hair as he looked back at the screen. 

Jason's phone started ringing. Bruce stared at his until the light started to make his eyes hurt. 

"Yeah. Of course he would say that," Jason said. Bruce could hear Stephanie's voice through the phone. Then he heard Tim yelling through the tinny speaker. "We'll head back," Jason said though it sounded like he didn't want to agree. He hung up and Bruce looked up. "C'mon." 

They walked in strained silence. Bruce kept reading until he'd read every article twice. Until he had every piece of the puzzle that their best friends had used to build this wrong picture. Bruce kept circling back to the bruises. He could only think of the ones he so seldom left. The finger shaped ones on Tim's hips from his control slipping. But Tim had always traced over the marks, pushed his fingers into them. He hadn't thought they'd be misconstrued this badly. He didn't even know how they'd seen them. He couldn't say anything. He didn't think Jason would believe him. And he could see how badly it would go if Bruce tried to say that Tim had  _ wanted _ the bruises. 

He didn't stop at the elevator. He kept walking up the stairs. Jason following a few steps behind. He fidgeted with his keys, but before he could open the door it swung open and Tim was standing there. He looked at him and felt his heart crack open. How could anyone think that he'd hurt Tim? 

"Get out," Tim said. Bruce startled then he realized he was talking to Stephanie. "We can discuss this later, but I need you to leave right now." 

"Tim," Stephanie said as she stepped into the doorway with a sleeping Harper in her arms. 

"No," Tim said and shut the door. 

"I would never-" 

"I know," Tim said. "I know." He touched his cheek as he looked up at him. Bruce hugged him carefully and Tim let out a small noise. He hugged him tighter. Bruce buried his face in his hair. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. 

"I thought we could make it go away and you wouldn't-" 

"Get blindsided by our  _ friends _ ?" he hugged Tim in tighter. 

"I'm sorry," Tim muttered into his chest and then looked up at him so that he would see that he meant it. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea that our friends would…" He shook his head rage boiling in his ears. "I mean how could they?" He demanded still in disbelief. He had thought it was a joke when Bruce stepped out and Stephanie dropped the bag on the table, telling Tim to take his shirt off. She'd snapped that she wasn't kidding and pulled it up herself before he could finally bat her away and demand to know what was going on. But he pushed past his anger, it wasn't what Bruce needed from him right then. "I wanted to protect you like you did for me after I got attacked," he said softly, cupping his face in his hands. "It was wrong of me. This…" he sighed heavily and dropped his hands, letting them ball on Bruce's shoulders, "this is my fault." 

"It's not your fault," Bruce muttered into his hair, he sounded tired. "We just… can't keep trying to protect each other from the media. We have a kid now. We need to be a team." 

"We already are a team," Tim grumbled. 

"A more effective team," Bruce corrected. 

Tim laid his cheek against Bruce's chest, just reveling in the comfort of him while comforting him until Damian made a noise from his playpen. Tim stepped away to pick him up and carried him back over to where Bruce was still standing, frozen from the shock of it all. "We know who you are," Tim told him softly, holding Damian out to him. He giggled and reached for Bruce with a demanding shout and Bruce smiled despite himself. 

He took the baby and Tim grabbed his phone from the couch where he had thrown it after Stephanie had pulled up the article. "What are you doing?" Bruce asked, settling Damian on his hip. 

"Calling Selina," he told him with a grimace. "We need to come up with a game plan." 

Selina came with supplies. She had three mimosas before she could let herself say anything about the article that wasn't a curse, and even then her eyes were set in a permanent glare. She had Tim write out a statement that denied any truth in the article. Then she crossed out all of the parts were he told everyone how fucking stupid they were reading trash news before they called a reporter that they trusted at the Gazette and gave her an interview. 

It was a long day. And when Selina finally left and Damian was down, Tim climbed into Bruce's arms and refused to move until he had to leave for work the next morning. 

It was a very long week. Tim's statement was met with a lot of speculation, but he answered with the same prepared answers every time. His frustration grew with every call knowing that the robotic reply only made Bruce seem guiltier-- but Selina reminded him again and again that this was the right way to go about it. "Eventually they will get bored and stop," she said again before she took the papers she'd brought for Tim to look over back into her hands and walked out of his office. 

But that didn't do anything to help the now. He was still avoiding Stephanie and Jason's calls. They had reached out after his interview posted and tried yet again to get Tim to admit that he was being abused. He hadn't wanted to tell Bruce, but had promised to talk to him about these things. So he did, and watched as he sunk a little further into himself, Tim's heart aching for him. He watched Bruce struggle with it all week, frown only getting longer and longer until he finally gave up and called Stephanie. 

"Tim!" She breathed on the first ring. She sounded like she had run for her phone. "I'm so happy you called. I hate not talking to you." 

He bit his lip to keep himself from telling her that the reason he hadn't was her fault. "Look, I don't want to do this anymore," he told her. "We need to figure this out. Can you and Jason come over tomorrow?"

"Yeah," she said too quickly. "Yes of course. Do you… should we bring boxes or-"

"I'm not leaving Bruce," he snapped at her and then pinched the bridge of his nose. "I just want to talk okay? All of us in one room. Get it all out in the open." 

"Okay," she agreed again, her voice harder this time. "We'll be there."

Selina watched Tim carefully when he hung up with Stephanie and he started dialing the next number. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked. He knew she was actually saying that it wasn't, but she was better at that than anyone he'd ever met. "They'll just gang up on him again."

"That's why I'm calling reinforcements," Tim told her as a woman answered the phone. 

"Gotham City Museum of Arts."

"This is Timothy Wayne. Could you please forward me to Dick Grayson's office?" 

It was impossible to get Bruce to sit down while they waited for Jason and Stephanie to get there. Tim sat on the floor with Damian, holding his hands as he bunched up and down on his little feet while he watched Bruce pace. "This is a bad idea," he said finally, scratching his cheek. He hadn't shaved for a few days and his stubble was starting to give way to a beard that Tim wanted to ravage-- if Bruce would let Tim touch him. 

That was the hardest part. Damian was starting to sleep better, exhausting himself during the day now that he could crawl around and Tim had been convinced that their dry spell was over. But work was longer. The calls kept coming. And the article was in the back of Bruce's mind keeping his touch light and sweet. 

"We can't keep tiptoeing around it," Tim told him, looking back at Damian when he yelled for his attention. "We'll talk it out. And it'll get better."

"And if it doesn't?" Bruce dared him. 

"Then we tried," Tim told him easily, sealing his heart to the possibility. 

Bruce stopped pacing and kneelled next to him, turning Tim's chin so he would look him in the eye. "She is your best friend…" he started. But Tim fixed Bruce with a fierce look. 

" _ You _ are my best friend," he told Bruce seriously. "I don't want to choose between you. But if I have to, I will choose you every time." 

Bruce felt the truth of Tim's words hit him and he sat down next to him. Damian's knees wobbled and he fell at him. He felt like his entire world had tilted and no matter how many times Tim told him that he knew he never would hurt him the fact that their friends and the public believed it... He sighed. 

The doorbell rang and Bruce looked over. He didn't want to answer it. He wished he could go back and ignore the idiot trying to take their pictures. Comfort his son, like he should have, and let it all be done. Tim shifted Damian over to him and went to answer the door. He listened for the voices and was surprised when there was one he didn't expect. 

"You look horrible." Bruce looked up as Dick walked in. "No wonder you don't grow a beard." He cuffed Bruce's chin before crouching and smiling at Damian. Barbara came behind him with her arm still around Tim in a hug. 

"I like it," Bruce replied but touched his cheek. "What are you doing here?" 

"Tim asked us to come. We've got your back." Dick offered him a smile. Bruce didn't know what to say. His throat was thick as he swallowed. Damian gurgled and Bruce focused on him. He cleared his throat and Dick pat his shoulder as he stood up. 

"Listen to what they say," Bruce said after a couple minutes. Tim frowned and he knew he didn't really want to. "They have a reason." 

Bruce took Damian and put him down when the next knock came at the door. He knew that he was just using it as an excuse so that he didn't have to be there when they walked in. Damian frowned when he put him in his crib and grunted at him as if to remind him that it wasn't time for bed yet. He kissed his head and gave him his stuffed cow. Damian hugged it and Bruce slipped away. 

Jason and Stephanie were on the couch. Barbara and Dick were sitting in two of their kitchen chairs across the coffee table from them. Tim was perched on the end. Bruce sat down next to him. Tim took his hand and Bruce looked down at it before looking at him. He nodded and let his shoulders roll back. 

"The article isn't true. None of them are," Tim said and his voice brooked no argument, but Bruce knew it was going to start one. 

"You don't have to protect him," Stephanie said. She was only looking at Tim.

"I'm not," Tim said flatly. He could see his irritation bubbling. He had listened to Tim read out his original statement and knew how angry he was about it all. However much Bruce wanted to be angry, he couldn't. Because he knew Stephanie and knew that all of this anger was only from her need to protect Tim. 

"Why aren't you defending yourself?" Jason asked. 

"You're not going to believe anything I say," Bruce told him. Jason scoffed and Tim's hand tightened around his. 

"You don't even believe me," Tim said. 

"Because you've spent your entire life covering for people who treat you like shit," Stephanie said. "You'd tell me your parents were going on a trip with a smile on your face like it didn't matter. Because you didn't want it to matter. This is the same."

"There is no 'this'," Tim snapped angrily, throwing air quotes at Stephanie. "You've been with us since the beginning. You really think that the same guy that doodled cartoon bees would-" 

"People change," Stephanie interrupted. "You used to complain that he was controlling." 

"What?" Tim asked and pulled back in his surprise. Bruce looked at Dick because he couldn't look at Tim. "No, I didn't."

"You did. You said you couldn't ever do laundry the way he wanted." 

Tim frowned and looked at Bruce then his eyes widened. "You mean back when I first moved in?" He turned back to Stephanie and laughed once. "I never said he was controlling. He just color codes all of his damn clothes! It's more complicated than you expect. But it's not." Tim smiled weakly at him. "Seriously babe, socks?" It was something Tim teased him about often, they had mocking fake arguments about it when Tim purposefully put a patterned socks in with the black. 

"You're going to break up a marriage over laundry?" Dick asked. 

"Were we the only people that saw the picture? That read the articles?" Stephanie looked frustrated. But he could see that her confidence was wavering. 

"The articles laying out his history of violence?" Dick clarified. Bruce could hear his anger in his voice. "I've known Bruce for half of my life at this point. The only time I've ever seen him get angry was when someone he loved was involved." 

"He fractured a guy's jaw." 

"Technically-" Dick started. Bruce coughed before he could finish the joke. He didn't think the clarification that it was the table that broke the guy's jaw would help them any. 

"I was standing up to an asshole that threatened my girlfriend. And I was nineteen." 

"There was an entire list. But you'll have an excuse for each one," Stephanie said with a shake of her head. 

"Jason has been arrested four times," Barbara told them. Bruce felt the tension rise in the room. 

"What did you say?" Stephanie asked. 

"Twice for assault, theft, and disorderly conduct."

"What does that have to do with anything?" 

"Jason's the same size as Bruce," Barbara said. "He has a history of violence." Bruce looked at Jason and it clicked. "I could make the same accusations about your marriage." 

Stephanie leaned forward with her finger pointed at Barbara. "Who do you-" 

"I'm not your dad," Bruce told Jason. Jason's eyes flared and Stephanie shifted closer to him, her hand slid over his knee. 

"That has nothing to do with this," Jason hissed. 

"What are you talking about?" Tim asked. Bruce's eyes flicked over to Stephanie. He was sure that she would have told Tim. But the way Jason was folding in on himself made it clear that no one else knew. Jason looked at him, then turned to Tim. 

"My  _ father _ was an abusive asshole," Jason growled out. Then scoffed and shifted forward. "People keep saying that the story couldn't be true because your match is so high, but my parents were 72s and he beat her every single day. And my mother took it all because they were matches and the system couldn't be wrong. It couldn't be broken. I refuse to sit back and watch it happen to someone else because of an imperfect system."

"Jay," Tim started, but Bruce shifted forward. 

"That picture." He sighed. "The flash had scared Damian and I admit, I overreacted. I just wanted to get away. I didn't realize how tightly I had Tim's arm." 

"Bruce," Tim whispered. 

"He tripped on the stairs. And that's the picture. I did hurt him. I regret it. I apologized. I hate that I'm the one that put that expression on Tim's face. But I am not abusing him. I know that I can't make you believe me. But it's the truth."

"What will it take to convince you?" Tim asked. Stephanie looked over to Jason for a moment before turning back to them. 

"I don't know," she said.

"Then you let us know when you're willing to be our friends again," Tim said. 

"Tim, you don't have-" Bruce stopped at the look Tim gave him. It was the same one he'd had earlier. 

Stephanie nodded, though her eyes were watery. Jason frowned at him as he followed her out, but he didn't look as angry as he had the entire conversation. 

Dick and Barbara didn't stay long after that. They hugged both of them hard and made them promise to come to lunch that weekend. Bruce checked in on Damian, he'd fallen asleep. Tim tugged on his elbow and dragged him to bed. They changed and Tim curled up with arms wrapped around Bruce and his head resting over his heart. 

"We don't have to organize the clothes like that." 

Tim turned. Blue eyes met his before he sighed. "We're not changing it. I like it. I know I tease, but I always know where everything is." Tim laid back. "I barely even remember telling her that." 

"Okay."

"I love you. No matter what." 

"I love you too."


	6. Chapter 6

Bruce hummed as he tried to get Damian to open his mouth. Nothing was working. His phone rang and he grabbed it. He frowned when he saw Lex's name pop up. Not the company phone, but his private number. 

"Lex," he prompted and tried another spoon. 

"Are you busy at the moment?" he looked down at his pajama pants he hadn't bothered changing out of and the smear of banana across his shoulder that Damian's laugh had followed. 

"No," he answered. 

"Perfect. How does your elevator work?" 

"What? Are you in my building?" 

Lex made a noise and then Bruce heard the rumble of the elevator through the phone. "I figured it out. I swear you'd have to have a masters in engineering to figure out the controls." 

"We don't use it alot," he replied and wiped off Damian's face. Damian smiled and banana leaked out of his mouth. "Why do you do this?" he asked the baby and wiped his face again. 

The knock came and he heard it twice. He accepted that he was going to look like this as he let Lex Luthor in his home and answered the door. Lex hung up and looked at him with obvious distaste. 

"What brings you here?" he asked and walked back into the kitchen. Damian still needed to finish eating. 

"Lex Corp is required to investigate all claims made involving one of its matches." He paused with the spoon at the edge of the container and looked at him. This was worse than he'd imagined. He thought that Lois had been bad. He could lose everything. "However since the claims are not coming from either of the matched parties, I have convinced the board to allow me to handle this personally. I just finished talking to your husband." Lex smiled. "I couldn't believe that you gave him your company when I heard the news." 

"It was the right move for us both," he said. Damian clapped and accepted the spoon. 

"Yes, you decided to become a happy homemaker."

"Family is important," he replied. He refused to let Lex irritate him. Damian yelled and leaned away from the next. He kept trying and then Lex stepped next to him. 

"Give me the spoon." 

Lex took the spoon and then leaned forward. Damian frowned at him. Lex pulled back and said "oop" with an exaggerated face. Damian giggled. Lex did it a few times. Then he did it and Damian mimicked his face. Lex slid the spoon in and Damian ate it. He finished the container before handing the spoon back and sitting down across the counter. 

"I forget that you're a father." Lex nodded. "And grandfather now," Bruce added when he remembered. 

"Yes. Of a bouncing baby boy," Lex replied with a smile though he didn't sound happy about it. Or maybe just unhappy in general. Bruce continued to clean up their lunch adventure as he answered Lex's questions. 

"Tim already told me everything I needed," Lex said when Bruce picked Damian up. He pat him as he rocked. "We'll be closing the inquiry. But it will remain on your match profile." 

"Why did you come here if you had already made your decision?"

"Perhaps I wanted to hear your side as well." Lex stood. "And I wanted to check on the child." Lex offered Damian his finger and he grabbed it with a smile and a yell. "He looks like he's developing well."

"He's perfect," he replied. It felt strange to have Lex smiling at his son. He looked up at him and nodded. 

"We'll do what we can to help with the media." 

"Thank you."

As soon as Lex was out the door he called Tim. It went to voicemail and he called Emily. She answered the phone with a sweet hello then informed him Tim was in a board meeting that Lex's impromptu visit had pushed back fifteen minutes. That explained why he hadn't gotten a warning call. 

Tim laughed at him when he called him half an hour later and he told him about the banana. Then complained that he had missed actual proof that Lex was a human. It was the first time in a while that he'd heard Tim laugh so freely. His chest ached with how much he missed him. They talked until Tim had to get to another meeting. 

\---

It was a balancing act. Between being at work and being at home and Tim knew that he wasn't good at it. He didn't understand how Bruce had always managed to be home by six every day, work done and just ready to be with the family. Tim had a problem being out the office door at 7 and even then he was more often than not finishing up at home around 9. He could tell that his constant working was wearing at Bruce. And it was wearing at Tim too. He liked the work and he was glad that they had made this change-- but he didn't want Bruce to feel like he was alone in raising their child. He needed to catch up. 

"Help," he said feebly on Friday when he walked into their bedroom from the office. He had a stack of reports that he still had to go over if he didn't want to end up at work the next day. And he'd been pacing for the last ten minutes to work himself up to this. 

It wasn't that Tim thought he could take on everything on his own. He knew that he was still very new at what he was doing. He  _ knew  _ that required a lot of patience and advice. But Bruce and Thomas had been so sure of him. And with his family name weighing him down… it made asking Bruce to help him feel like he was admitting defeat. 

But Bruce didn't look at him like he was weak. He just frowned and held his hand out for Tim's and helped him climb into bed next to him. "What do you need help with?" He asked, taking the reports from Tim. 

"I just…" Tim sighed and pulled off his tie. "How did you do it?" He asked him, sorting through the pile. "You always came home at the same time every day, no work distracting you. Lately I feel like I'm drowning in it. And I haven't seen you in weeks." About two weeks since they had confronted Jason and Stephanie, but without her it felt even longer. 

Bruce smiled slightly, just the tiniest hint of amusement and took the rest of the papers out of Tim's hands. He set them on the bedside table and crawled over Tim when he made a noise and reached for them. "Uh uhn." Bruce shook his head and tapped Tim's chin to keep his eyes on him. 

"But-"

"They can wait," Bruce told him softly. "That's the secret." Tim frowned at him confused and Bruce kissed his cheek, then his neck before he held himself over Tim and continued. "Regardless of what everyone tells you, you can put things off until tomorrow. Contracts will not fall through in a day. And the longer you make them wait, the more eager they are to comply to any changes you want to make." He kissed Tim sweetly and smiled down at him. "You are young and eager." He grinned when Tim made a face at him. "You let the board take advantage of that. But  _ you _ are in charge here, baby. And--" He kissed Tim again and hummed as he slowly gave into Bruce's mouth, following after him when he pulled back up. "I can help you. That's why we have a home office." 

Tim melted. He didn't know how it was possible that anyone could think anything bad of Bruce. He was a Saint. The world's closest thing to a perfect husband and father and Tim was overwhelmed by his love for him. He wrapped his arms around Bruce's neck and pulled him flat against him, kissing Bruce until he was breathless and his shoulders felt lighter than they had in weeks. Bruce rolled them over so that Tim was sitting on his stomach. "I'm sorry. I know I've been working too much," he told him softly. 

Bruce brushed his fingers over Tim's cheek and into his hair. "It's okay. I'm really proud of you," he told him, eyes shining and filling Tim with warmth. 

"I love you," Tim told him helplessly and kissed Bruce again before he cuddled down against him and closed his eyes to savor the embrace. 

Bruce let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his love into Tim's back in tiny circles. "Thank you for asking me to help."

-

The next week was the best week Tim had since being back at work. He was busier than ever, but Bruce had sat down with him and Emily to go over his schedule on Monday and everything ran so smooth that Tim felt like he blinked and the day was done. Bruce helped him with a lot of the paperwork, and talked through ideas with him the rare minutes he was alone in his office. And it was so nice to work with him again that he came home every day feeling light and full and happy. He hadn't realised just how much he had missed this. 

Damian was scooting across the floor of the office when Tim got home on Friday at 5 with his hands full, making little oohs with every kick. He shouted when he saw Tim and attempted to roll over only to fail and start yelling more angrily until Tim put everything on the counter and swept him off the floor. Bruce was sitting at the desk, typing something quickly. He just finished when Tim walked in and checked the clock before he smiled at him "You're early," he said surprised, looking up to accept Tim's kiss. 

"I rescheduled my last meeting," Tim said proudly and held his hand out to pull Bruce out of his chair. "I wanted to surprise my husband."

He raised an eyebrow at him. "Surprise me?" Tim grinned and led Bruce out the door. He had stopped at the florist and Bruce's favorite restaurant on the way home. He watched the smile take over Bruce's face as he walked over to the vase of two dozen peach roses. He was pretty sure that his heart melted when Bruce sniffed them and then took Damian so that he could smell them too. "Peach roses are for gratitude?" Bruce prompted, ever the botanist. 

And even though they had been married for eight years, Tim still felt his face turning red. "I know that I can be… frustrating sometimes. And I'm not great about talking about how I feel." He sighed and then shrugged. "But you are always so patient and helpful and just kind of wonderful. And I'm very grateful that I have you," he told him cheerily. Damian squeaked at him and Tim grinned, kissing his cheek. "Both of you," he amended and he swore that Damian understood him when he smiled. 

Bruce pulled Tim in and kissed him, Damian shoving back on him to keep from getting squished even though he was laughing. They ate in the living room and Bruce tried his best to teach Tim the trick Lex showed him for feeding Damian. But that just ended up with Tim covered in mushed peas and milk vomit, which was probably the worst smell that either of them had ever experienced. He took a shower while Bruce finished and by the time Tim was walking out in lounge pants and a tee shirt, Damian was passed out in his crib. 

He snuggled against Bruce on the couch and they caught up on their show, intermittently making out without pushing in any direction. They climbed into bed around midnight with the intention of taking it further, but Damian woke up about thirty minutes after wailing at the top of his lungs. Tim pushed Bruce down when he moved to get up and went to check on him. His nose was running and his head felt hot and he rubbed his little face unhappily into Tim's shirt. 

Tim brought Damian back to the room with him, Bruce pulling the bassinet out of the closet and got it set up by the bed while Tim gave Damian medicine. His nose stopped running around two, but his fever didn't break and he eventually fell asleep on Tim's chest. 

"Tim," Bruce whispered. He didn't know when he fell asleep, but it was light outside. He cracked his eyes open and looked down at the baby bundle still on his chest. Bruce cupped Tim's cheek and kissed him. "C'mon baby, you have to get ready. I made a doctor's appointment." 

Tim blinked groggily. Damian's pediatrician was on vacation. "With who?" 

The ride to Metropolis with a sick baby made Bruce regret his decision. But the thought of going to a new doctor who didn't know them, now when their family was under such scrutiny just made him sick. The thought of anyone questioning his devotion to Tim was disheartening, but it would destroy him if they thought he would do anything to hurt Damian. Bruce walked the length of the mostly empty car and tried to sooth Damian who was rolling between screaming fits and broken cries. Tim kept apologizing to the two older women who were sitting at the front and the couple at the back who both had earphones in. The ladies talked to Tim while Bruce leaned against the window as Damian stared out at the green. He didn't think he was really taking any of it in, but it had soothed him some. 

When they got off the train Bruce started down the platform and up through the weaving tunnels. Tim followed behind him and when they reached the top he let out an amazed noise. 

"How did you know where to go? I would have gotten lost at the first turn."

"I used to come here a lot. Not much has changed." He took Tim's hand and looked up the address again. Damian had worn himself out about half an hour outside of the city and they'd gotten him settled in the carrier on Bruce's chest. He was conked out and both Bruce and Tim had spent the rest of the ride laughing at his scrunched up face. 

"Where is all the grime?" Tim asked when they turned the block. He looked disgusted. Bruce chuckled and brought his hand up and kissed it. He loved him so much. "You think it's weird too. I know you do," Tim insisted. Bruce stayed quiet and fought back his smile when Tim glared at him. "Whatever. We're just visiting," Tim said like he was reminding himself. He watched a person put a bottle in a recycling bin and turned around to stare at it. Bruce tugged him and waited at the corner for the light to change. 

"The parks are really nice here."

"We have parks," Tim insisted. 

"Playgrounds with two bushes are not parks," he told him. Tim pinched him. "They aren't. We have one park." 

"So what if we only have one," Tim pouted and Bruce squeezed his hand. "It's still a really nice park."

He squeezed his hand. They moved forward when the crosswalk changed. "It is. I love our park." 

"Ooh. Conner got himself a fancy office." They looked up the sleek skyscraper. 

"He is one of the top geneticists in the country," he commented as he held the door open. 

"Who is seeing our baby who has a cold," Tim said sounding skeptical. 

"I called to ask for another referral and he offered." 

Damian woke up in the elevator. Tim spent the ride playing with him trying to keep him from wailing. Bruce watched him make funny faces and noises and it struck him again how much he missed him. It was strange to think when he was standing right in front of him. They stepped off and Damian whined and sniffed, but he didn't make any other sounds as Tim checked them in. Bruce let Damian hold onto his hand as they waited. 

Conner was the one that opened the waiting room door and called them back with a wide crooked smile. Bruce let him and Tim get caught up. Conner had stayed with them during Tim's second year. He'd shown up with his backpack and an insistence that it wouldn't be long. It had been a hard time in their relationship. At least for Bruce. He didn't think that they had ever really talked about it, but watching Tim with Conner had pulled up a jealousy he hadn't ever felt before. Selina had always told him he was possessive with his partners, but part of him had always known there was a chance they'd leave. But with Tim he didn't want that, had felt the need to hang on and had to remind himself to not hold on as tightly as he had wanted. Conner had stayed the rest of that semester and most of the next before he gave in and let Lex pay for an apartment near the campus. Bruce wasn't sure what had happened, but he knew that still to this day Lex was trying to redeem himself to his only son. 

Conner had them sit down in an examination room. Tim went over Damian's symptoms and answered Conner's questions. Bruce felt Conner's eyes turn to them and in that moment he felt like he was looking at his father. He didn't think he'd ever seen Conner focused in thought - sugar high giggling about werewolves on his living room floor as he blindly tossed M&Ms into Tim's mouth on the couch sure - but never this. 

Damian cried through the entire exam. He held onto Tim's fingers like it was a life line and Tim looked torn. Bruce pet Damian's hair and hummed his bedtime song. It hadn't worked for soothing him at all during this, but he had to try something. Damian hiccupped and quieted, though Bruce wasn't sure that it was his doing or just that he'd run out of energy. 

Conner rolled back to his counter and went over the files Bruce had sent him. "I think it's just a cold." He hadn't looked away from the pages and was frowning at them. He flipped it over and looked at something. 

"So he'll be okay?" Tim asked when Conner didn't continue. 

"Hm? Oh. Yes. I'll give you a prescription. I noticed something in his file. Nothing to worry about," Conner said and held up his hands when Tim's back straightened like he'd been electrocuted. "But if you're okay with it, I'd like to do some tests."

"Sure," Bruce said when Tim looked up at him, panic clear on his face. 

"I'll be right back." 

"It'll be fine," he said as soon as the door shut. 

"What if he's not? He's doing  _ tests.  _ Plural." 

"Tim. He's going to be fine." He pulled him in and kissed his temple. Tim sighed and nodded. Damian didn't like the needles. When they got home after Conner promised he'd have the results back to him within two weeks, Damian liked the medicine even less. He had spit all of it back out, red goop had oozed from his mouth and Bruce hadn't been able to hold in the laugh at the disgust on his face. Tim whined at him to help as he tried to clean it up while Damian kept drooling. 

-

Selina sat across the bar from Damian. She watched him with wary eyes and he was outright smiling back at her. She looked up at Bruce. 

"Tim said he never smiles. Why is he smiling?"

"He smiles. Just not a lot," he said with a frown. "And maybe it's just because he likes you." 

"It's creepy. Make him stop."

"My son is not creepy. I can take him over to my parents," he offered. 

"No. No. I agreed. I can take care of the monster." 

"Okay. His schedule is on the fridge."

"I know. You've already gone over everything twice. I'll be okay. I promise not to accidentally kill my godson. Do you promise not to kill me too?" Selina asked Damian who just grinned wider and laughed. Selina looked up at Bruce. "You saw that right? He's totally going to murder me as soon as you leave." 

Bruce laughed and kissed Damian's cheek and head twice before picking up the bag he'd packed that morning. 

"Have a good night," Selina sang and he refused to look back because he already knew the teasing smile that would be on her face. 

Bruce stopped at their coffee shop and ordered his normal. He looked at the menu for a while before just telling the barista to surprise him. He checked the time as he waited for his order. 

It had been a while since he made the walk across the street. He got a smile and a good afternoon Mr Wayne from the receptionist before stepping into the elevator. Emily was waiting for him when the elevator opened. She hugged him tightly. 

"Did you miss me?" he asked. He turned the holder so she could take her green tea and honey. She took a sip and shook her head as she walked back down the hall to Tim's office. 

"I missed this. Tim makes me get my own." She grinned at him. "Selina hinted you were going to kidnap him soon. Today the day?" 

"He did finish his project right?" 

"Finally. I was about to start scheduling naps for him." 

"I'm going to wait for him in his office, if that's okay?" 

"Go ahead. His meeting with Luke should be over soon. But they get distracted sometimes." She smiled and settled back at her desk. He set the coffee on the desk and propped the letter he'd written that morning as he'd watched Tim sleep through his first and second alarms against it and settled in Tim's chair. 

"Mr. Wayne, your five o'clock is in your office," Emily said a little louder than necessary. Bruce glanced at the clock. It was five thirty. He chuckled. She was cold. Bruce got up and leaned on the corner of the desk. He smoothed his sweater, Tim's favorite. He always ran his fingers over his arms when he wore it, even though he insisted that it was just really soft. He also had changed into a different pair of jeans when Selina had first walked in and said no. 

"I didn't know I had a meeting," Tim sounded tired. 

"Oh. I could have sworn I put it on your calendar. I'm sorry," she told him, sounding perfectly regretful. 

The door opened and Tim's smile was plastered on his face. His eyes lit up when he saw him. The door shut behind him as Tim crossed the room quickly and practically launched himself into his arms to kiss him. 

"You brought me coffee?" he asked and picked it up. "And a letter?" Tim rubbed his thumb over the scratchy bee on the front. "What's the occasion?" 

Tim sipped at the coffee and hummed in pleasant surprise. He pushed Bruce around to sit down and climbed into his lap as he opened the letter. Tim leaned against him as he read it. He picked up the key card when it slipped from the page. 

"Babe," Tim said and turned around with a wobbly smile. Bruce accepted the kiss and the ones that followed after. "Let's go," he said and stood up suddenly. 

"Do you have to finish anything? I can wait."

"No. I can do it tomorrow. I need to start our date now." Tim's hand gripped his bicep as he pulled him up and he ran his hand down it as they walked to the door. 

Tim's hands didn't stop moving over him as they walked the few blocks to the hotel. It seemed like he couldn't decide where he wanted to touch. When they walked in the room Tim barked out a laugh. 

"You're such a nerd," Tim said as he walked up to the window. "Did you pick this room for the view?" 

"It's a nice park," he said and walked up behind Tim. "But I actually chose it for the balcony in the bedroom." Tim turned around and his eyes lit up before he searched out the doors. He opened one and it was to a small bedroom. Then he crossed the room and opened the other. Bruce grabbed their bag and set it on the dresser as he walked into the bedroom. 

"I love you," Tim said from the balcony. Bruce leaned against the door as Tim leaned over the railing and looked out over the park. People were still walking around. There was a restaurant across the way with an outdoor dining space. He could see the musicians playing, but the music didn't reach them. "I know we technically crossed this off, but your parents house doesn't really count." 

"No?" he asked. Tim looked over him as he shook his head. "Did you want to skip dinner?" 

"We can get room service later," Tim said and slid his hands under the edge of Bruce's sweater. "I want you to show everyone how much you love me right now." 

His hands slid over his chest as he pushed up onto his tiptoes. Bruce leaned down to kiss him. Tim pulled away, mouth rest and breath coming hard. He pulled off his jacket and tugged at Bruce's sweater. "Off."

"You're so romantic," Bruce told him even as he tugged his sweater off. 

"We can be romantic later when it hasn't been two months since you touched me." Tim swat Bruce's hands away from his pants and pulled them open as he dropped to his knees. Bruce gripped the door frame. 

"Oh fuck. Tim," he moaned as Tim worked him until he was hard and the wood creaked beneath his grip. "I'm gonna-" 

Tim pulled off with a pop and looked up at him. He licked his lips and Bruce nearly came right then. He breathed through his nose. He jolted when Tim grabbed his hand and started sucking on his fingers. 

"It's been too long babe. I brought stuff." Tim's eyes narrowed at him when he pulled his hand away. He frowned back at him. "I know you can handle it, but I have a whole night planned." He twirled the lube bottle in a circle and Tim scrambled to turn around. He rested his torso on one of the patio chairs. Bruce pulled down Tim's boxers and Tim shivered. It really had been a long time. He stopped to take in the line of Tim's back and the curve of his muscle. Tim made a needy noise and wiggled his ass. Bruce couldn't deny him. He pushed two fingers in and Tim's breath was punched out of him. He moaned loudly. Bruce leaned over him and kissed at his jaw until Tim turned so he could swallow his moans. He worked Tim open, then kept going. Part of him wanted to watch Tim come undone right there, biting into his mouth. But he knew that Tim would kill him. He pulled out and lifted Tim to his feet. He was unsteady for a moment before gripping the railing and looking out at their view of the park and all of the people in it. Tim's fingers threaded through the ones Bruce had on his hip as he lined himself up. 

"You're going to scream my name until they can all hear you," he growled against Tim's neck and slammed in. Tim let out a sharp cry. Bruce kept his thrusts deep even when he slowed, drawing it out when Tim started to tighten around him. Tim did shout his name, he yelled it over and over. His moans and cries interspersed between them as Bruce pushed him to the edge again only to slow again. He pulled Tim up against him and turned his face so he could kiss him as he rocked into him. "Do you think they heard you?" he asked. Tim trembled as his entire body tightened. He pushed Tim back down and took his hips in his hands. "They'll hear this," he told Tim. 

"Yes," Tim cried out. He pushed back as best he could even as his hands slipped on the railing with the force of each thrust. "Please! Bruce!" Tim came with a shout and Bruce finished seconds later. Tim melted back against him and Bruce pulled them back into the room before sitting down. 

Tim was slumped across his lap chest heaving a pleased smile on his face. 

"Top ten," Bruce told him. Tim laughed and pat his thigh. 

"You're ridiculous. And I'm starving."

They placed their order and Tim pushed him down onto the couch. They made out until Tim pulled Bruce out and slid down onto him. He bounced in his lap as Bruce sucked marks along his collarbone. Tim was letting out breathy little moans when the food came. Bruce picked him up and set him aside. Tim stared at him as he pulled his boxers back up and opened the door far enough to shove a bill through the door and thank him. Once Bruce was sure that he was gone he opened the door and pulled the tray in. He left the food and picked Tim back up. 

"I hate how much this is turning me on. I'm not a damn doll," Tim complained as he slid right back onto Bruce's dick. "You and your ridiculous arms just moving me around." Bruce smiled and Tim flicked his nose before letting out a small moan. Bruce went back to his trail of marks and wrapped his hand around Tim as he started to chase his orgasm. Tim came and relaxed with a sigh. He didn't move away when he rolled his head to look at him. "Are you close?" 

He shook his head. "We should probably eat." 

"Then you're coming," Tim promised. "I know you brought all of our fun stuff in that bag with you." 

Bruce grinned. 

-

Bruce yawned as he washed his chest. Pale red marks covered most of it. They'd stayed up until the sun had started to rise making up for every time they had missed since Damian was born. A gust of cold air hit his back before Tim was plastered against it. Bruce let Tim take the rag and relaxed into the steady movements. 

"This was your best idea," Tim said. 

"Selina offered to watch Damian whenever we needed to." 

"So we can go on dates every week?" 

"If you want to," Bruce said and turned. "They might not be exactly like this." Tim pouted, but his eyes were full of mischief. 

-

"You look happy," Emily cooed at Tim when he walked in, hair still damp from the shower that had run longer than he intended. He regretted nothing. Bruce had dropped him off at work on his way to release Selina from her godmother duties and the kiss in the car had left him flushed and his damp hair askew and it had to be painfully obvious what he had been up to. 

He straightened his back and tried to compose himself even though his cheeks were burning. He set a paper cup of tea on the counter for her and watched Emily beam before she took the cup and went over Tim's messages. 

-

Tim was surprised when Selina asked him what he and Bruce would be doing for their next date night. Bruce had told him about her offer, but he hadn't thought she actually meant it. Selina had never been the mothering type. While Stephanie had shrieked in joy when Tim told her that he and Bruce were going to try to have a kid, Selina had grimaced and asked why. Still, Damian had been so happy when Bruce got back to the apartment and Selina had come into work with this self satisfied smile that refused to go away. So when Wednesday came around and Selina asked, Tim responded with whatever came to him off the cuff. 

Bruce was amused when Tim pulled him up to the box office at the theater close to their old apartment. He didn't say anything as Tim asked for two tickets to the newest Knives Out film- one that he and Bruce had already seen. He just raised an eyebrow and followed Tim inside, going through all of the motions with him until they were settled in the empty theater with their snacks waiting for the previews to start as they adjusted the spacious chairs that had been put in a few years back. 

Tim had been so disappointed at first. He had loved the old theater, liked the retro feel of it and even the slightly musty smell of the curtains. They had stopped coming when they went through their renovation, putting up new screens and making all of the chairs recliners with tall and puffy armrests that raised up-- but that was exactly why he had picked it this time. 

"You know we have already seen this right?" Bruce asked amused, stealing one of Tim's milk duds. 

"Can you honestly tell me you don't want to watch it again?" Tim teased him and watched his husband purse his lips on his guilty smile. Bruce had adored the first movie. It hadn't been surprising to Tim, it was funny and exciting and on top of that it was a great mystery-- everything that Bruce needed to be truly happy. And Tim had gotten the benefit of Bruce slipping into a syrupy southern drawn to call him sweetheart time and again. Tim smirked and lifted the arm that was between them so that he could snuggle into Bruce's side. "I didn't think so," he said, squeezing him while the previews started. 

The theater stayed empty until the title card came on and a man walked in by himself. Tim watched him up the stairs, smirking when he walked down their aisle on Bruce's side and sat down four seats away. Bruce didn't take much notice except to glance in his direction and then back at the screen, already enthralled with the film. Tim waited a few more minutes until he was sure that Bruce was distracted and then very casually palmed at the seam of Bruce's pants. 

He was hard in an instant, twitching straight to life under Tim's hand. Bruce stiffened slightly and his grip on Tim's shoulder tightened, but other than that, his face looked completely neutral and one glance at the stranger told Tim he wasn't paying them the slightest mind. So Tim rubbed at Bruce again. Harder, slowly working his palm up and down again until Bruce's brow was drawn in and he forgot to laugh at the joke on the screen. Tim waited for the music to swell before he unzipped Bruce's pants, popping the button on his jeans easily with a hook of his thumb. He let his hand push down against Bruce's boxer briefs, heat radiating off of his dick like he was on fire. The music swelled again and the action in the scene came to a head when Tim pushed down his underwear and took Bruce hard in his fist. 

Bruce had to fake a cough to muffle his moan, his fingers digging deliciously into Tim's shoulder as he pumped slowly up and down. The stranger glanced their way, but only for a moment before he was back to watching the movie Tim ran his thumb over the top of Bruce's dick and couldn't help but smirk when he heard Bruce let out a sharp breath. 

He was surprised when Bruce caught his arm and pulled his hand away after about fifteen minutes. He frowned and watched Bruce put himself back together before he gave him a pointed look with his dark eyes and mouthed, "Bathroom," at him before he got up and walked a little uncomfortably down the aisle. 

Tim's leg bounced as he forced himself to sit still and wait the appropriate amount of time to get up after him. About five minutes after Bruce had left he stood as casually as he could and made his way down the aisle and back into the theater hallway. It wasn't a very big theater. There were four screens, and one of them was showing a flashback movie no one wanted to see so it was a mostly dead night. There were two bathrooms. One located in the main lobby that was large and always had an attendant. But there was another smaller one by the hallway exit that only had one point of entry and most people walked right past. That was the bathroom Tim headed to. 

There was no door on the bathroom, just a sharp corner before the mirror and three sinks, four stalls on its other side. He listened for a moment before he rounded the corner, eyes instinctively looking at the bottom of the stalls to pick out Bruce's shoes. He gasped when a hand grabbed him and spun him into the wall that made the doorway, Bruce's eyes a blue fire baring into Tim as he held a hand over his mouth. Tim's chest heaved as if he had been running, his heart running havoc around his chest as Bruce slowly moved his hand away from Tim's mouth and pressed a single finger to his own. Tim nodded slowly and Bruce flashed his most breathtaking grin at him before he pulled Tim away from the wall and pressed his stomach into the sink. 

He flushed when he felt Bruce pop the button of his pants realizing that he didn't intend to move this to a stall right as he dropped to his knees behind him. He felt his pants fall off of him and the elastic of his boxers being stretched until it rested right below his ass. Tim had to bite down on his knuckle when he felt Bruce's nose slide up his cheek and stubble scratch it's way down. His thumbs spread Tim apart and he made quick of working him open. Tim was practically drooling trying to keep his silence, painfully hard and pulsing.

Tim was surprised when Bruce tapped him to step out of his pants before he stood up and pulled Tim in. He kissed him like a savage, taking every bit of Tim that he wanted without mercy until he was nothing but need and anticipation. He bit down on his noise of surprise when Bruce picked him up, pressing his back into the wall, tile freezing on his bare ass. Bruce was already out and ready for him, his dick rubbing between his ass slowly, teasingly until Tim was about to beg. But he didn't have to. Bruce pulled Tim down on him and covered his mouth again as Tim gripped so tightly onto his shoulder he thought he might puncture him, unable to hold in his groan. 

"Shhh," Bruce soothed him softly, rocking slowly in and out of him, allowing Tim time to get used to the feeling. He waited a moment before he let go of Tim's mouth, resting his palm flat against the wall, the other around Tim's waist as he slammed back in. 

Tim couldn't breathe, but that was okay. He was pretty sure that he didn't need to breathe if he could just feel like this all of the time. Bruce didn't even seem strained by holding him up and pleasure at that thought surged even deeper into Tim's skin. Bruce was relentless. He fucked him fast and hard, the sound of his hips slapping against Tim's ass surely echoing out of the bathroom at this point-- but who cared. Tim wanted them to come. He wanted them to see what Bruce could do, how he made Tim fall apart. 

"B-" he barely breathed and took a sharp inhale when Bruce hit the most perfect spot. He couldn't stop the noise now. Every thrust knocked another small gasp out of him that he was sure sounded completely pathetic, but he didn't care. 

His eyes caught movement to the right of them and he glanced over to see the reflection them in the mirror. Tim's flushed face painted up in a mess of lust while Bruce nipped at his neck and effortlessly fucked him. Bruce saw him looking and smirked, pushing almost flat against him as he whispered in his ear. "You want them to find us, don't you?" He taunted. "You want them to see what you look like when you're being so good for me. Perfect for me." Tim bit down on a sob as his orgasm crashed into him and Bruce hissed out, "fuck, Tim!" and fucked into him faster. 

It didn't take long for Bruce to cum after that, sinking deep into Tim and curling into his shoulder as he shuddered and rode it out. They were both panting when Bruce finally pulled his head up and helped Tim off of him and back to his feet. Tim pulled his pants back on and slipped back into his shoes while Bruce grabbed some toilet paper to clean them up. It was almost startling to hear him talk at a normal volume when he asked. "So was that as amazing for you as it was for me?" Almost self-consciously. 

Tim took a moment, faking contemplation before he looked casually back at his husband and zipped his pants. "Top ten," he told him and shrieked out a laugh when Bruce hugged him off the ground. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello from the void. 
> 
> We hope everyone is doing well and surviving in this crazy time. Not much to say here except to remember that you are wonderful and you are filled with value and worth. Please vote. And remember to eat and drink water even when you feel like shit. 
> 
> Love and all the socially distant hugs ♡
> 
> -Prubbs.


	7. Chapter 7

Tim texted Conner a few times, but each reply was the same. He was waiting on the results and an inquiry about how Damian was doing. At least they were until they weren't. Bruce's phone chimed while he was watching Tim play hide and seek with Damian. He leaned back to grab it off the couch. 

**CL:** Hey Bruce. I had to consult with my dad. You should hear from him soon. If you don't will you let me know? 

**BW:** Sure. Should we be worried? 

**CL:** My dad will explain everything.

 **BW:** Ok

He stared at the message before hitting send. He wanted to ask more, he knew that the worry Tim had been carrying for the last three weeks wouldn't be soothed by a meeting with Lex. 

"What is it?" Tim asked. Damian was giggling as Tim stuck out his tongue at him. Bruce shook his head and was about to tell him they'd talk about it later when his phone rang. Lex. He hadn't expected it to be that soon. He answered and agreed to the meeting. Lex was more professional than he'd been the last time they spoke. He assured him that there was nothing wrong with Damian before Bruce could ask.

"Was that Lex?" Tim asked when he hung up. "You had your Lex face on." 

"I have a Lex face?" he asked. Damian crawled over to him. He stood Damian up in front of him. He'd stood for Tim a few days before, but he just yelled and sat down. 

"Yeah. You look like you ate something gross and want to hit something at the same time." 

"Why haven't you told me I have a Lex face before?" 

"I thought you knew? Selina and I talk about it. You're trying to distract me," Tim said with a frown. "What did Lex want?"

"We have a meeting with him on Friday. He wants to talk about Damian with us." 

"What?" Tim asked and pulled Damian against him. Damian giggled and wiggled in Tim's lap. "Why?" 

"He wouldn't say, but he did say that Damian was fine." Tim looked down at Damian with a worried look. "Really. You know Lex. He wouldn't bother with a reassurance unless it was true." 

Tim held onto Damian the rest of the night. And Bruce barely convinced him to put him in his crib in their room. He distracted him with plans for a date night in Metropolis. They'd be up around five and had the rest of the night to go out and see the city Tim loved so much. Tim spent the rest of the day sending him memes about how much Metropolis sucked. But Bruce had a night out planned. 

Tim had a few meetings in the morning that he hadn't been able to reschedule. Bruce wasn't sure that he'd actually asked Emily to, but if it distracted Tim from worrying over what Bruce was sure would be nothing he was okay with it. Tim caught his sleeve when he reached the bottom stair and Bruce had to look up to kiss him from where he was standing. 

"Tell your parents hello for me." 

"It'll be okay," he said and squeezed Tim's hand. "I'll see you at one." 

Tim kissed Damian and murmured how much he loved him into his hair before heading the opposite direction. Bruce headed out to the manor. Damian fell asleep on the drive out and didn't wake up until the door was opening and his mom was cooing and demanding to hold him. 

He caught his mom up in everything that Damian had done so far, she looked so proud when she looked at him and Damian just smiled back at her. His dad pulled him aside during a diaper change and Bruce gave him an update on the media. Thomas grunted and rolled his eyes and when Bruce was done pat his back. He wished he'd talked to him sooner, the last lingering stress melted. It took three tries for him to actually get out the door and when he did he could hear Damian start crying. He stood on the other side of the door and listened to his wails. He pushed off the door. He had to go. 

Tim fidgeted the entire train ride to Metropolis. He answered emails and texts, pointed out random things outside the window, and looked up the history of the railroad before they'd even hit the halfway point. Bruce glanced around them and stood up. Tim stopped talking and looked up at him. He tugged him up and toward the back of the car. Bruce made sure no one was looking before he shoved him into the restroom. 

"What are you-" Tim got his answer when Bruce sank to his knees. 

"You need to relax," he told him. Tim's eyes blew out and he nodded. Bruce smiled and popped the button on Tim's pants. 

When they sat back down, Tim continued reading the history of the railroad to him, but it didn't have the manic energy it'd had before. He leaned against his chest and Bruce hugged him closer as he talked about the new lines that had been added after the war. 

Lex was waiting for them in the lobby. Bruce's heart jumped into attention when he saw him. He greeted them both, shook Tim's hand for a few seconds longer than normal. Tim raised an eyebrow at Bruce as they walked to the elevator. 

Lex walked along the window at the back of his office as they sat down. He looked nervous. Bruce didn't think he'd ever seen that before. 

"Thank you for meeting with me," Lex announced and pulled his chair out. He sat down and put his hands on the desk. "Conner brought something to my attention a couple days ago." 

"About Damian?" Tim asked. Bruce put his hand on his knee as it started jumping. Tim covered it with both of his own and gripped his hand tightly. 

"Yes," Lex agreed. He picked up a pen and put it back down. "A mistake was made."

"Mistake?" Bruce repeated. 

"The DNA of only one parent was used." 

"What?" Bruce asked. He glanced over to Tim, he wasn't sure that he was breathing. 

"I take the blame. I mislabeled the test sample."

"So he's... not mine," Tim asked. Bruce looked over to him. Lex hadn't said that. He started to tell him he was wrong when Lex agreed. "Excuse me."

Bruce watched as Tim walked calmly out of the office. 

"Explain."

And Lex did. He had been trying to figure out why they were not able to create viable embryos during the first two attempts. One of the samples, where only Bruce's DNA had been introduced to the egg had been mislabeled and later implanted. When he was done he looked at Bruce and told him as simply as he could that their son was, essentially, a clone and how that should not affect how he grew up or later lived. He answered all of Bruce's questions. Bruce looked over his shoulder. 

"I have to go find him." 

"Mercy let him in the staff bathrooms." 

He nodded and stood. He wanted to yell at him about his company and the mistakes that they made, but those mistakes had brought him Tim and now Damian. He couldn't find it in himself to be angry. At least not yet. He might reconsider that stance once he found Tim. 

-

Tim didn't know where he was going when he walked out of Lex's office. He just stopped in front of Mercy's desk, watching her blink in surprise when he said, "bathroom," in a dead voice. She gave him a key card and pointed him down the hall. Tim waved the card over the lock and stepped inside before he slid down to the floor, his back against the door. His throat felt thick, but he didn't cry. He just looked up at the ceiling and focused on breathing. 

"You probably think this is funny don't you?" He asked the ceiling, imagining his mom staring down at him with a sinister smirk. "Was I really _that_ horrible? Did you really hate me that much that you couldn't just let me have--" but Tim stopped. Because he _did_ have Damian. Sure, he wasn't biologically his, but he was Bruce. An exact copy of the one person in the world who had always treated him with love and respect. Should that not be enough? And Damian was perfect. A beautiful, healthy-- maybe a little serious, but mostly happy baby. Now that he was starting to get a personality, Tim knew that he didn't hate him. That his irrational notion of Bruce being the preferred parent was due to exhaustion and loneliness. But with this new information… how could Tim not think that maybe it was because deep down, Damian could sense that Tim wasn't his father. 

He shook his head and put his face in his hands. 

It didn't take long for Bruce to come find him. He knew it was him by the gentle knock on the door before he even spoke. "Tim, baby?" He said softly, his voice pulling at Tim's heart like it was tied to his own. "Can I come in?" 

Tim took a moment to compose himself before he pushed off of the floor. He held onto the door handle for a second and then pulled it open and looked up at his husband who was looking down at him in concern. He walked into him, and wrapped his arms easily around his waist. 

"I'm fine," he told Bruce before he could ask. Bruce's fingers pulled lightly on his hair to make him look up. He looked skeptical. "No really," he told him, wondering if his voice would stop sounding so dead the more he said it. "I think I always subconsciously knew. He's too perfect-"

"Stop that," Bruce muttered, his voice sharp. He took Tim's face in his hands and let his electric blue eyes send a pulse down his spine. "You are the kindest, most intelligent and beautiful man that I know. Any child of yours would be just as wonderful. Damian already is, and it isn't because of genetics. It's nurture." His thumb wiped a tear that Tim hadn't realised escaped him from his cheek and Bruce leaned in to kiss the spot where it had stopped. 

He swallowed against the knot in his throat, his eyes finally stinging. "It's because my… my samples were bad?" He asked thickly. He hadn't stayed for that part. 

Bruce shook his head. "It was a clerical error. Entirely Lex's mistake," he said and kissed Tim's forehead before he buried his face in Bruce's chest. 

"I'm not crying because I don't love Damian," Tim grumbled against Bruce's chest. 

"I know," he said easily. 

"I wouldn't trade our son for anything."

"I know." 

"I just…" Tim trailed off and looked up at Bruce biting his lip. He didn't have the words to explain the thunderstorm in his mind. Just clouds and static and a hurt that wouldn't stop raining down on him. 

Bruce just nodded and kissed him, lingering for a moment. "Let's go home."

-

They spent date night in their apartment alone. It felt weird and quiet and Tim decided that he didn't like the way that it felt to be there without their son. But they had needed the time. They spent a lot of the night talking, trying to decide how they should handle the news and if they should tell anyone. Lex had been very eager for the mishap to stay between the three of them, claiming that he owed them a favor which was no small gift. But Tim hadn't been able to really wrap his mind around that, not when it still weighed so heavily on him. 

In the end they decided to keep it to themselves. Because it really didn't matter. Damian was _their_ son. Regardless of his DNA that wasn't going to change and the only thing that the truth would welcome was more scrutiny from the press. And that was the last thing they needed. So Tim plastered a smile on his face when they went to the Wayne's to pick Damian up, listening to all of the fun they'd had and letting Martha and Thomas take turns showing them pictures. Tim stood back for a moment, looking at the four of them, Damian on Bruce's lap, his parents on either side. And he couldn't help but think about how perfect they looked together. A happy family even without Tim there. But he shook that thought away when Bruce smiled up at him and waved him over. 

-

Try as he might, Tim couldn't shake it. He had nightmares, horrible images of Bruce and Damian walking away from him or not being able to see him as he yelled from right beside him. He woke up too early for an entire week, playing it off as being nervous about an important meeting that was coming up when Bruce asked. It only made Tim feel worse at how easily Bruce had taken his excuse, muttering reassurances into the kisses he gave him before work every day before Damian took over giving him slobbery smacks to his cheek. He felt sick and horrible when they kissed him goodbye Tuesday morning, the second week after their appointment with Lex. But he managed to smile and tell them both how much he loved them when he stepped out the door and called Emily. 

She didn't question him when he told her that he was taking a personal day. Just said that she would have everything rescheduled quickly and would sit in on the board meeting for him to go over his talking points and take notes. He thanked her and hung up quickly, telling his car to take him to the address he'd found at the bottom of the letter he hadn't been able to bring himself to actually read. 

The building they stopped in front of was old. But not as ragged looking as the others on the block. He asked the driver to wait for him and he agreed all to happily saying he would circle the block until he came back. The door to the building was gated and Tim looked at the list of tenants until he found the one he needed and pressed call. 

"Yes?" His father's voice asked. It was almost startling to hear it coming from the speaker. Like he was just a normal nice guy and not the man who had abused and neglected him for years. 

He cleared his throat. "It's Tim," was all that he could manage, letting the silence from the other end wash over him. He waited for a minute and when his father didn't say anything back he pressed the button again. "Can I-"

The door ripped open and Jack Drake was standing on the other side of the gate breathing heavily, his eyes bewildered and excited. They just stared at each other for a moment before he unlocked the gate and held it open. He reached for Tim, but he took a step back on reflex and Jack pulled his hand back to his side, frowning in understanding. "Would you… like to come in?" He asked quietly, his eyes hopeful but wary like he thought Tim might hurt him. It was a strange thing to see. 

He cleared his throat. "Yes…" he said very carefully and walked through the gate. "Thank you." 

He waited inside the building door for his father and then followed him up the stairs and down a long hallway until they were at an apartment door that read 2D. He opened it and let Tim inside, giving him a moment to look around. It was nothing like the apartment that Tim had grown up in. With all of its decadent finishings and art they had no business owning. If anything it looked more like Stephanie's first apartment, everything she had owned came from friends or thrift stores but she'd always managed to make it look comfy and happy in it's chaos. Tim looked back at his father, seeing him in this space not making total sense in his brain. The TV was on the news and Jack hurried over to turn the volume almost all the way down, the movement seeming to shake him out of the shock he'd been in. 

"I… I would introduce you to the guys, but they're working today," he said easily. It took Tim a minute to remember he had roommates. His father walked in a wide berth around Tim to the kitchen. "Can I make you some tea? Coffee?" 

"No." Tim shook his head softly. "I… don't think I'll be staying very long." 

The hopeful look in Jack's eyes dropped out but he nodded. "I understand." 

He gave Tim his time, not asking him questions as he pulled his thoughts together and pulled the letter his father had left him out of his pocket. He set it on the counter and looked back at him, his father's eyes still in the open envelope. "I didn't read it," he told him. He didn't say it harshly. "I tried, but it listed a lot of difficult memories for me. I hope you understand."

"Of course," Jack whispered and nodded earnestly. "Thank you for trying."

"You're welcome," Tim said, swallowing on his formality. His eyes stung but he fought it off. He had told himself that he wouldn't be crying in front of his father. He needed to be firm. He had made his decision. He knew that it was what was best for him. He couldn't back out of it. "I wanted to come see you because I didn't like the idea of you always waiting for me to come by. I'm not coming back."

"I understand." His father's voice sounded thick, but it looked like he was trying to keep himself together for Tim's sake. 

"I just… wanted you to know that I'm okay. That I'm happy and successful despite everything you and mom did to try and steal that from me." 

"Okay."

"And I did it on my own. Bruce didn't help me. I got my degree and paid off my loans with my money and I worked _really_ hard." 

His father nodded. "I know." 

"And I know that you needed to apologize. But just because something needs to be said doesn't mean that it needs to be heard." 

"I understand." 

"That's all I wanted to say." Tim barely managed to say. He turned to leave, but stopped before he got out of the kitchen. Anger had spiked in his shoulders despite him trying to stay calm and he couldn't help the malice in his voice when he asked. "Why did you even have me?" It came out as more of a demand than a question. "If you hated me so much. What was the point?" 

The question hit his father hard and it took him a moment to pull himself together enough to respond. "We didn't hate you Tim," he muttered. He took a few steps forward until the counter was the only thing between them. "Your mother and I… we were just chasing after anything that would make us happy. We were a bad match. We thought that having a kid would fix all of our problems-- but it didn't. Your mother became depressed and I got angry at her for it. And you were such a good kid, it just reminded us of how miserable we were." He laughed humorously. Tim watched him, the way his face twisted in pain before he continued, "We should not have had you. You didn't deserve the miserable life we provided. Children deserve love. That's all they want."

"I know," Tim said stiffly thinking about Damian's shouted laugh and clap every time Bruce and Tim said it.

Jack smiled small. "Of course you do. I almost forgot." He looked longingly over Tim's face, debating with himself before he said, "Can I ask…?" Without finishing the question. 

"Damian," Tim breathed out. "His name is Damian Thomas. He's almost one." 

And Jack smiled, a real genuine smile that almost made Tim crumble. "That's a good name." 

"He's not mine," Tim added quickly, his father's face falling with his. He didn't know why he was telling him this. Maybe because he knew that he wouldn't tell anyone else and it just felt like someone should know. "There was a mix up at the lab, so they only used Bruce's… I'm not really his dad." Jack chuckled and Tim looked at him hurt, but he waved it off. 

"I'm sorry," he told him earnestly. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise, just… Tim, I _am_ biologically speaking your father." His eyes dewed and he pressed his lips together. "But I didn't raise you. And I didn't love you like you deserved. Can you tell me you were better off for having my DNA?" Tim didn't say anything and Jack smiled again, a real one if not overwhelmingly sad. "Your son is very lucky that you are his dad. He doesn't need our genes to know that." 

He was barely keeping himself together, nodding when he couldn't speak. He looked at the door knowing that he should leave, but stopped again. Very slowly he walked around the counter and pulled his father into a hug. "I'm glad you got help, Dad," he told him, closing his eyes as his father hugged him back fiercely, savoring each and every second. And then he pulled away and walked out the door without looking back. 

Tim managed to hold himself together until he asked the driver to take him back home, then he melted down. He couldn't stop crying was he darted into the building hopeful no one would take another stupid picture for the tabloids. He took the elevator, his chest hurt too much to attempt the stairs. And when he opened the door to Bruce's surprised face, he just dropped his bag on the floor and walked into him, pulling back down into a hard wet kiss. Damian laughed and clapped from his chair and Tim wiped his arm across his face before he grinned at him. "Hey buddy." He beamed at him and pulled him up into his arms before Bruce could ask what had happened. "You know that I love you and your Daddy very, very, very much, right?" Damian made a gurgled noise and spit up on Tim's tie making Bruce laugh despite himself. 

"I think he knows," he grumbled and wiped at him with a kitchen towel. Tim grabbed Bruce’s collar so he had to look at him. "You know how much I love you, right?" He whispered. Bruce looked between his eyes and nodded slowly. "Good," Tim said, feeling the tension ease out of him before he handed Damian over and went to change. 

-

Bruce closed the jewelry box and held his breath for a moment. He knew that Tim knew it was there. That he could take it whenever he wanted. He just wasn't ready for how it would make him feel. Or that Tim would take it only a few days after their meeting with Lex. 

He waited. 

He wanted to ask Tim about it, but he could see how much he had weighing on him. So he let him work through it. He comforted him as much as he could while he waited for him to talk about it. 

Then Tim came home with tears in his eyes. He held him in his arms that night as Tim told him about his visit with his dad and how much Tim had wanted to prove that he was a good dad. They didn't sleep much that night and the next day Tim called in.

-

"Do you think it's your new friend?" Bruce asked as he walked to answer the door. He'd been waiting for the rolling cow for the last two weeks, but the shipping kept getting delayed. 

"Moo?" Jason asked as he held up the package. Bruce stepped back and let Jason in. He set the box down. "I was walking in when the delivery guy stopped. Thought I would bring it up." 

"Thanks." He looked at Jason for a moment before walking to the kitchen. "Do you want some tea?" he asked. Damian babbled from his chair. Jason sat down in the chair next to him and picked up his cow. He slid his fingers into the slits and moved them around making the cow dance. Damian laughed and clapped. "It's still his favorite." It had been Jason's contribution during one of the mass shopping trips they'd made. He had shrugged and said he'd had one that looked like it when he was a kid. Jason looked down at it and pulled his fingers out before setting it back down. 

"I hate it when you do this," Jason said quietly. 

"Do what?" 

"You just sit there and wait for me to talk. Maybe I don't want to tell you on my own. Maybe I want to be asked what's wrong. But you just fucking stand there and make me want to tell you cause I know you'll listen, cause you still fucking care even though I was a fucking asshole to you." 

Bruce pulled the kettle back off the stove and sat down across from him. "What's wrong?" he asked. Jason flicked one of the legs and bit his lip. He could see him trying to get his voice under control. 

"Stephanie's pregnant again." Jason slid his hand over his face. "That's supposed to be good news, right?" Jason asked. "Then why aren't I happy?" 

"She's pregnant?" 

"Yeah. Five months," Jason told him. "She was complaining that she couldn't lose her baby weight. Turns out there was a reason." Jason laughed, but it didn't sound happy at all. "She's freaking out. And I'm trying to be the calm one, but-" Bruce rounded the counter and hugged him. Jason squeezed him back. "I'm sorry." 

"It's okay." 

"No, it's not." Jason sucked in a breath before pushing him back. He swallowed. "It's my fault. Steph was just supporting me. Will you please forgive Steph? She needs Tim right now." 

Damian started whining and grabbed Jason's sleeve. Jason glanced up to him and he nodded. Jason picked him up and Damian immediately squeezed him as hard as his tiny arms could. Jason laughed before it broke. 

"It'll be okay." He pat his shoulder as he reached for his phone and texted Tim to call Steph. He added Jason's here. Tim texted him half an hour later saying he'd be late. Jason stayed for a few hours telling him about how much they were struggling. He apologized every few minutes and Bruce accepted each one. He knew it would take time to get back to where they had been, but he knew they'd get there. 

When Tim got home that night his eyes were red and he crawled straight into Bruce's arms. Bruce hugged him and breathed in his scent. 

"I missed her so much," Tim said, his voice thick. 

"I know." 

-p

Damian stood by his feet and stared at him. His knees bounced a few times and he could see him trying to make a decision. Bruce deflated when Damian fell forward and crawled to him with a smile and a few babbles. He laid back and let him crawl over him as he looked over to the couch. Tim and Selina were chatting amongst themselves. 

"Do you want to fly?" he asked Damian and lifted him up. 

"No!" Damian shouted. Selina had cackled when Bruce told her that his first word hadn't been a simple Dada to either one of them but an emphatic no when he tried to get him to eat the last bit of banana. He laid him back down on his chest and after a few seconds Damian frowned and mumbled no at him. Bruce picked him up again and made a whirring noise as he moved him around. That got a laugh. 

"God," Selina sighed. Bruce looked over to the couch. "You look like you want to drag him off and make another one." She poked Tim's knee with a feral grin. He was blushing behind his drink. 

"We've been talking about it," Bruce volunteered as Tim gathered himself. "Damian's almost one. If it takes as long as it did the first time he'll be almost three before she's born."

"She?" Selina asked. 

"He wants a daughter," Tim replied with an eyeroll. "A son, a daughter, and a white picket fence on the front porch." 

"I don't know why that's a bad thing," he told him.

"It's cliché," Selina said. Tim chuckled and they tapped their cups against each other. 

"Cliché doesn't mean it's bad," he insisted. Damian crawled over to his toys and he sat up. 

"There it is," Selina announced. 

" _The Pout,"_ Tim said solemnly. 

"I hate you both," he told them. 

"No you don't," Selina replied. She pulled Tim closer. He startled and nearly spilled his drink, but kept it upright. "We are your two favorite _adults."_ Bruce closed his mouth. He had been ready to point out that Damian was his favorite. Tim's eyes widened as he looked behind him. Bruce turned and saw Damian step before falling with a laugh. 

"He walked," Tim said, sounding breathless. They spent the next hour sitting in a circle trying to get Damian to walk to them. Tim got the first couple steps and the loudest laugh when he caught Damian before he fell. He watched Tim lean up close to Damian as he tried to get him to walk to Selina who was smiling across from them. Damian wobbled again, but fell and crawled quickly across to her. She picked him up in a swinging arc and blew raspberries into his belly. 

"What do you think us at nineteen would say if they saw us now?" he asked. Selina looked up at Damian and smiled before flying him over to Bruce. He took Damian and helped him stand. 

"I think you'd cry," Selina said. Tim snorted at the face he made. "Really. This is everything you ever wanted. You have someone that loves you more than anything else, a cute ass kid that won me over with a single glare, and you're happy." 

"What about you?" Tim asked. Selina's smile shifted. 

"Oh she'd be terrified. A family that I'm actually part of? Unheard of. But I'm going to be the cool mimosa aunt to my favorite people's kids. It's bliss. Having my own wife isn't too bad either," she said with a grin. Selina's phone chimed and she looked up at the clock. "That's probably her actually. She's back in town for the weekend." 

Selina said goodbye to Damian and kissed them all on the cheek before leaving. Tim crawled over to him when the door shut. "Did past you really want all this?" 

"The love of my life, two and a half kids, and a white picket fence? Yeah. I did. But I think I can pass on the fence."

"And the half kid," Tim said. "I think two will be good." 

"We wouldn't want them to outnumber us," Bruce agreed. "So are we calling him?" 

"Maybe. Let's get Damian to his birthday first. If we survive that then we'll call." 

"My mom sent me another book of decoration ideas today." Tim laughed and held onto Damian's hand while he babbled at them about his newest toy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand we've come to the end of this part of their life. But we love these two so much that you're guaranteed to see more. So much so that there is already a third fic starting right now. 17 years in the future Damian is getting his own match profile. So if you want to stick with us just read the next in the series. :) 
> 
> (I felt very car salesman on that last bit....) 
> 
> Anyway! Hope you liked it! Let us know if you did! 
> 
> -DNA

**Author's Note:**

> Be our friends and follow DNA and I on twitter at [@PBrubbs](https://twitter.com/PBrubbs) and [@Dnawhite51](https://twitter.com/Dnawhite51). See the process of our day to day writing frustrations and pictures of our dogs. We are very lame and old and we want to talk to you.


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